Fight to Keep Yourself Sane
by JoNeZiE
Summary: Agent Emily Prentiss' past wasn't what anyone thought. When someone wants revenge and forces her into an all too familiar game, will she win this time? Will it be another draw? Or will she lose everything she holds dear? Rated M for violence and language.
1. All Work and Not Play

**This is my second story. This one has a lot more direction and purpose than my first one. This is just the first chapter. There will be more. I really will need some reviews though. Tell me if you like it and some little encouraging remarks would be nice too... Or am I asking too much? Well here it goes!  
-Jonezie**

**P.S.- I don't own Criminal Minds**

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Opening the door to her SUV, Emily quickly headed up the steps to her studio. It was a modest place to live in, not the best but far from the worse. She remembers the day she picked out this place. Thinking back to about 5 years ago.

"_So Ms. Prentiss, how do you like this place? It has 4 bedrooms, a den, large living space and kitchen, and 2 bathrooms." A short woman with shoulder length hair and furrowed brows. She was determined to find Ms. Prentiss a place to stay before beginning her job and the Bureau. It would promote a lot of business if she got an F.B.I. agent settled in on the first week of house hunting. _

"_What's over there?" Emily asked, gesturing to a wide, ugly green curtain._

"_Ohh… that's just the window. The contractors screwed up and made it too big. If you want, I'm sure we could get it fixed." The realtor suggested. _

_Walking over to the eye sore, Emily studied it. She hadn't really been interested in any of the places Mrs. Sander had taken her to. This seemed to be about the best place so far though. "How far was this from the F.B.I. building again?" Emily asked, but didn't turn to look at the short lady._

"_Um, about 15 min. But the commute there is really nice compared to anywhere closer." Mrs. Sander added quickly. Watching Emily closely, interested in what the dark haired woman was doing. "As I said before, we can fix the window." _

_Emily grabbed the curtain and ripped it off the rod. She wasn't really worried about the curtain, just very interested in what lies behind the mask. Gasping, Emily turned to Mrs. Sander. _

"_I'll take it." Emily said breathlessly. Turning back to the wonderful view of the Capitol. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and you could see a sea of color below._

Entering her condo, she threw her keys on the table and opened the fridge. She groaned loudly with disappointment. The case they just finished had lasted a week and they only had a day off before that case. To say the least, she hadn't had time to go to the grocery store. The only thing in her refrigerator was a 2 week old tuna fish salad, thanks to Garcia claiming that she made the 'Best Tuna Fish Salad Ever' binge. Emily didn't even like tuna.

"I'm guessing the fuzzy green stuff isn't a part of the salad, but Garcia made it so…" Emily said to herself as she closed the poor excuse of a fridge's door. "I can't believe that I haven't been home for so long." She thought out loud.

Picking up the phone, she decided it would be safer to order pizza than eat anything that was in her condo. Listening to the kid say her order back to her, she told him her address and hung up.

"30 minutes and I'll have some real food in my stomach." Emily said dreamily. Taking a good look around her place she saw the view that made her buy this condo in the first place. "I can never get use to that." She smiled as she spoke. The Capitol always looked nice in the snowy, winter nights.

Hearing a slight shuffling sound, she turns expectantly to her door. A small envelope sits several inches from the bottom of her door. Then she hears heavy footsteps go down the stairs on the porch. Immediately on high alert, she cautiously walked over to the envelope. Picking it up, she saw neat printed handwriting on the front.

"Agent E. Prentiss." She read it out loud. Opening the envelope, she saw a yellow note on the inside. Unfolding the crinkled sheet, she automatically noticed the ever neat handwriting matched the handwriting on the front of the envelope perfectly. On the paper the words read "All work and no play? Don't find it fun destroying lives anymore? Now you are going to play MY game." That was all the note said. There was no author written down. Emily took a double take, re-reading the letter over and over. If she didn't know any better she would have thought… No it was crazy.

A sudden knock on the door made her jump. Unclipping her gun, but keeping it in the holster, she opened the door. "Yes?" She asked the teenager.

"It'll be $25 for the pizza." He said, completely unaware of the gun hidden by part of the door.

"Oh, right…" Emily rummaged around in her bag for her wallet and pulled out $25 and handed it to the freckled faced boy. "There you go."

"Thanks ma'am. Oh almost forgot. There was this dude that said he wanted me to give you…" digging in his pocket, he pulled a folded photo out. "This!" His voice squeaked at the end. He was obviously going through those 'changes.' "Bye." He said and walked back to his old rust bucket that had a little pizza delivery sign on the top.

Closing the door, Emily set the pizza down. Shakily unfolding the wrinkled paper. Gulping she flipped it over so that the picture was facing her. Sickening anger and pain crossed her face. The picture was of two girls, one looked to be 6 with long blonde hair in a pony. The other girl was around 12 and had sandy blonde hair that was done up in a braid. They both looked happy, smiling and you could tell that they were laughing when the picture was taken. The older girl had her arm wrapped around, what seemed to be, her sister's shoulders. The younger girl had her tongue stuck out in a giggly grin.

Emily dropped the picture. Shaking uncontrollably, she wobbled to the sofa. As she sat down she felt a vibrating on her thigh. Sitting there unthawed for several minutes, she felt it again. The second time, snapped her out of her trance. With stiff fingers, she opened her phone without checking who it was.

"Pre-Prentiss." She stammered into the phone.

"Hey Em? You okay? You sound sick or something. We've got another case, I know, but it is important. Kids are going missing and there are 4 so far. We need to get a jump on this one." JJ spoke in her political tone.

"Ri-Right…" Taking a deep breath she shouted inside her mind: Get a grip! That was the past. If you don't get focused someone will defiantly know there is something up. Just act normal. "Of course JJ. Don't worry, I'll be there in 10 minutes."

"Doesn't it take at least 15?" JJ asked.

"For normal people maybe…" Emily trailed off, still too distracted to make an intelligible conversation.

"Please just get here without getting killed." JJ almost sounded beggingly. "If you don't, I'm so getting Garcia to suspend your license." She added.

Laughing lightly, Emily shook her head. "Sure." She mumbled and hung up. Grabbing her stuff that she seemed to JUST put down, and taking a last look at the note. Just as she was about to exit her condo, she ran over to the picture of the two girls. "I'm sorry." She said desperately. Then she put the picture behind the picture of her driver's license. Finally she dragged herself out the door for yet another case.

A feeling of dread washed over her… The timing, everything just seemed like too much of a coincidence to be real.

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**That is chapter ONE!!! Yay! The next chapter will explain a lot. I am NOT sorry about leaving this chapter with a little cliff hanger. TeHe :P Well thanks for reading and leave me some reviews to tell me how you liked it!!! I promise that I will write this story until it is complete as long as I get some reviews! Thanks for READing!!! **

**-Jonezie**


	2. Be Careful Who You Play With

**This is Chapter 2. Hope you really enjoy it and please review. I am still a bit new at this and stuff, but I really tried to keep spelling errors to a minimum. This Chapter explains some more, but still leaves quite a bit of mystery. Ohhhh... Yes. I went there! Read on and REVIEW!!!  
-Jonezie**

**P.S.- I do NOT own Criminal Minds**

When Emily reached the F.B.I. Bureau, she saw Morgan and Garcia walking in together. Smiling, she parked in her assigned spot and got out quickly. The drive had helped her get some things in order. She was about 70% sure she knew who it was. The problem was her lead suspect was dead. Walking inside the building she was instantly hit with a wave of heat. Remembering that she was about to try and fool a room full of profilers, she quickly tried to do her best to compartmentalize her situation.

She got on the elevator and waited as it crawled up to her floor. This gave her some time to think about her situation.

Okay, so someone wants me to play a game with them. They can't be from my previous job, they shouldn't have be able to find me. Emily stop… Right now there are 4 kids out there that just want to get back to their families. That is the important thing… your little monopoly tournament can wait. Damn, I'm at my floor. Okay… Act natural.

Walking out of the elevator after the doors opened, she made her way to the glass doors that lead to the main floor. As she opened them, she noticed that she was the last to arrive.

"Hey Em! Good now we can start. JJ said that we gotta' be in the bullpen in 5." Morgan said as he made his way to the bullpen. With a case like this, the earlier the better.

"Okay, thanks." Emily dropped her bag off at her desk and followed his suit. Reid and Rossi were discussing something about their 'window of time' closing. Hotch was talking to JJ about a press release and Garcia was greeting Morgan.

"Good. Now that we are all here, these are photos of all the children that have gone missing in the last 48 hours." JJ said, pointing to a screen with 4 smiling kids on it. "Lisa Barns, Lara Collins, Kyla Jefferson, and Shelby Langston. They were all abducted in the last 48 hours from the same area."

"Any connection besides being girls?" Morgan asked.

"Not that we can find. They are similar but have never actually had contact with each other. The families are waiting for us in a suburb south of D.C." JJ told them.

"This case is this close?" Garcia asked despite trying to stay quiet.

"Same suburb?" Rossi asked. JJ just gave a grave nod.

"Okay, we are leaving in 15 minutes or earlier." Hotch told them and left to grab his go-bag.

"How old are they?" Emily asked. This made everyone stop in their tracks. Emily had been rather silent the whole time and the team seemed to forget about age.

"Lara Collins and Shelby Langston are both 5 years old. Lisa Barns and Kyla Jefferson are 11 years old." Reid informed them as he read deeply into the file they had just received.

Emily nodded blankly, she looked pale and almost ghost like. "You guys go ahead, I need to make a call real quick. I'll meet up with you in about an hour." They just agreed and walked out. As Emily walked out she felt someone grab her arm. She immediately reached for her gun, but a voice made her stop before she drew it.

"Hey Emily, it's okay. We all hate cases with kids." JJ told her reassuringly. "With the lack of rest and all, maybe you should sit this one out." She suggested.

"I can't. It doesn't make sense right now, but I just can't." Emily half-heartedly explained. Her voice was pained, like someone decided to have fun twisting her heart into a pretzel.

"Hey you can talk to…" JJ was cut short by Emily shrugging her off and walking toward the parking garage. Emily felt bad but she knew that JJ couldn't understand, not that she wouldn't try; just that it would be better to keep some things a secret.

"I just need to figure some things out. Don't worry!" Emily called over her shoulder as she grabbed her stuff from her desk and headed toward the parking garage. Putting her items in her SUV, she pulled out her phone. Before she could dial a certain number her phone began to ring. "Blocked Caller" showed up on the screen. Emily answered. "Who is this?"

"Well Agent Prentiss, hello to you too. Here is the first part of our game. I am sure that you were briefed about the missing kids by now?"

"Yeah." She said flatly.

"I took them, it was rather easy actually. We can discuss that later though. Right now, if you want me to not kill them you will follow my instructions carefully. Okay?"

"And if I don't?" She asked challengingly.

"You're smart, so don't ask stupid questions. If you really must know, I'll just shoot one. I have 4 remember? That means if I run out, you have 4 dead kids on your hands. So are you ready?"

"Do I have a choice?" She asked grudgingly.

"This game is all about choices Agent Prentiss. But of course you know that. Remember last time?"

"So it is you Ranger." There was a flicker of rage in her voice.

"Yeah… I'm alive. So you didn't win last time." His voice matched a kind of verbal smirk.

"How did you find me?" She hissed into her phone, looking over her shoulder to ensure no one was listening.

"Your old friend didn't tell you? Seems like you leaving your, what did you put it down as in your application for the BAU? Ahhh… Now I remember, you called it a "desk job." I found that a little bit of an understatement. Don't you think?"

"If you want me then let the kids go." Emily told him.

"Na-ah-ahh… Now that would go against MY rules. Let's see… I gave you one rule and you couldn't follow it? Fine." There was a small click on the other end, but the phone wasn't hung up, it was put on speaker. "Lara now, now. I told you about how Emily was going to save you remember?" He asked gently.

"Yewah." She sniffled. It was obvious that she had been crying.

"Well…" He breathed loudly, like he was soaking up the tension like a sponge. "I lied."

BANG!!!

There were screams in the background. Emily could think straight, she sunk to her knees and lent against a black car. She heard a deep chuckle on the other line. There were some footsteps, then the phone clicked again.

"Sorry 'bout that. Just had to motivate you somehow. Nothin' too personal."

"What the hell do you mean by 'Nothing too personal.' That is all this is!" She shouted into her phone. "Dammit." She looked around again, no one was there.

"Are you going to listen… or…" she heard what sounded like a gun being cocked and ready to shoot.

"Okay…" Emily said slightly defeated. She just heard a 5 year old being shot, hell yeah she felt obliged to not test him again.

"Good. Now get into your SUV and I want you to drive it into the bay." He instructed. "But don't worry, I want you to jump out before it actually goes into it. I need to dispose of that little GPS now don't I? What? Not any fun now that I'm setting the rules?!?" His last sentence was filled with anger and emotion, unlike the many before; they had nothing but emptiness and humor.

Emily did as she was told. Ranger didn't hang up for a second, but didn't make any more conversations either. When they were a mile from the bay, she was surprised at how empty it was. It may have been winter, but people still usually came to look out at it.

"Now drive it off the pier and into the water. Leave your cell phone in the car too." Then he hung up.

Emily took a deep breath. She couldn't risk him killing another innocent child. She didn't even know why she tested him. He played before, this sick twisted game, and he hadn't changed. She revved the engine and took off. About 10 feet from the edge, she jumped out. Rolling on her shoulder, she felt pain shoot through her body.

She got up and saw her SUV sinking into the dark abyss. Not knowing what to do, she just stared at the water.

"Such a shame. That was a new model too." A voice came from behind her. She spun around just in time to see a bright red steel bat collide with her ribs. A blinding pain electrocuted her. She tried to suck in a breath, but couldn't. She fell to her knees, gasping and coughing. She saw the flash of red again, but this time it connected with her back. She fell completely to the floor, unable to move due to the amount of pain she was in. She was laying on her stomach, arms stretched above her head. All she could see was Ranger's shoes. They shifted and she felt a heavy boot on her back.

Biting back a yelp, she cringed at the contact. He bent down and took her service weapon. Her vision started shifting to a hazy, fuzzy state. Then her world started turning black. The last thing she heard was him whispering into her ear. He had bent down so that he lips were mere centimeters from her ear.

"If you thought becoming the frontline's good guy role was going to erase what you used to do behind the scenes, then you must have really believe that I was dead. Now you will know what hell really is." She felt him smiling at his own statement. Then everything got distant and her world turned black.

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**Well that was Chapter Two. Tell me how you like it. I would love reviews as a kind of support so I know that someone is reading this. Because if no one wants to read it than I might as well not put it up... Right? Okay, well thanks for Reading and always remember.... REVIEW!!! Yay! I know that if we all work together, I can have at least 100 reviews by the end of the story! **

**-Jonezie**


	3. Fun and Games Pt 1

**This is the Third Chapter. I am very happy to know that there are some people who are reading this! And you people like to review too!!! Okay, this is going to keep you hooked. *wink* Read and Review. I don't own Criminal Minds.  
-Jonezie**

"Morgan, what's up?" Morgan asked as he answered his phone. He was in his SUV parked outside of Lara Collins' house. "What is it Garcia?"

"Well…" Garcia's voice was sad, this made Morgan immediately alert.

"What happened?" His voice was laced with urgency.

"They just found Lara Collins body in the bay." She told him. He could tell that there was something she wasn't telling him though.

"What else?" He was suspicious and worried.

"There was a note pinned to her bo-body." Garcia stammered. She hated seeing the photo's of innocent people murdered across her screen, but this was just a 5 year old girl.

"Penelope, what did it say?" His voice was tight, he could tell that she was on the verge of crying.

"It-it says: "Since you don't know the rules, you'll just have to sit and watch." But he left LH on the bottom." Garcia told Morgan, voice shaking. She didn't see how anyone could be sick enough to kill a little girl for the 'fun' of it.

"Damn!" Morgan yelled and hit his steering wheel. "Did you call the others?"

"Yeah, but I couldn't get a hold of Rossi or Emily. I left them a message. Was Emily coming out to the house too?" Garcia saw her friend's odd behavior in the bullpen, but Emily had always been secretive.

"I thought so. I got to go. I hate this part of the job." Letting out a loud huff, he opened his door. "Keep me updated, Babygirl."

"Sure thing, Sugardaddy." And then they both hung up.

Walking up the sidewalk to the gate, Morgan couldn't help but think how this place was just too normal. The white picket fence, the light snow cover over everything, all of it seemed to be a false face. Reaching the door he saw a sign on the little chair that was there for decoration.

"Welcome to Our Home." He read it out loud. "You won't be welcoming me for long." He mumbled to himself. With a heavy heart, he lifted a fist and slowly knocked on the door. It opened quickly.

"Did you find her?" Mr. Collins questioned. He was average built, a little on the tall side, and had a light blonde beard.

"Can I come in?" Morgan suggested.

"Of course." Mr. Collins opened the door wider for the Agent. Morgan saw Mrs. Collins sitting by the phone, staring at the fireplace. Her head snapped toward him.

"Is she safe?" Mrs. Collins practically pleaded. Mr. Collins went to stand by his wife. Morgan took a look at the fireplace; square on the mantel, there was a picture of Lara. She was grinning ear-to-ear, and had a stuffed animal about 3 times her size, behind her.

"I'm sorry Mr. and Mrs. Collins, we found Lara in the bay." Morgan told them, tearing his eyes from the happy picture. "I'm sorry for your loss." He gave them the company line. Telling the families of victims they couldn't save was hard, but it always relieved a little bit of pressure when there was another agent. Emily I can't believe you left me to do this on my own. He thought bitterly.

"But how could you know for sure?" Mr. Collins challenged, standing up straighter.

"Dental records matched. It was a positive DNA test too." Morgan told him miserably. The look of pure desperation swept over the father's face. He sank into the couch beside his wife.

"Bu-But…" He was in shock, his daughter, his little angel was just ripped away from him forever.

"Paul she-she just can't be…" Mrs. Collins cried.

"Sir, if there is…" Morgan was cut off.

"Get. Out." Mr. Collins told him, not even giving him the courtesy of looking at him.

"I understand." Morgan said in mono tone and started out the door.

"No… You don't." Mr. Collins said hollowly.

Morgan didn't respond, he just walked calmly out to his car. Opening the door and turning it on, he took a deep breath. "I am going to give you hell Prentiss!" He shouted to no one. Taking out his phone he called Emily, and when it went straight to voice mail, he called JJ.

Ring… ring… ri-

"JJ here, what is it Morgan?" She asked.

"Tell Emily that she owes me big time for skipping on me." He growled into the phone.

"I thought she was with you." JJ told him, confused.

"No. I figured she would head to the local station with you guys." He said surprised.

"I haven't heard from her since she headed out to make that call. Did you call her?" JJ was becoming more and more worried about her friend.

"Yeah, it went straight to voice mail. Garcia tried her earlier and said the same thing. I'm on my way to the station. I'm 5 minutes away." He hung up and focused on his driving. He got there in 7 minutes because there was a small collision that he had to get around. Almost running into the station, he spotted the team. All except Emily were around a table.

"I see you got a hold of Rossi. That's good." Morgan said a little breathlessly.

"Yeah. I was in a tunnel." Rossi told him. Hotch looked at Morgan.

"You haven't seen Prentiss since she left to the parking garage either?" Hotch was strangely anxious. Morgan shook his head. Garcia's face popped up on the t.v. that was on the wall.

"Okay, I got the video feed to the parking garage. And I tracked her phone. I was going to tap into her phone account, but should I?" She was a bit nervous about going through her co-worker's personal information.

"Did you watch the feed yet?" Rossi asked. Reid meanwhile, stood up and walked over to a dry erase board on the far wall.

"No." Clicking some buttons and then a video of their parking garage popped up. "There you go."

The video showed Emily walking out to her SUV and stopping. Answering her phone she looked concerned. The next thing they saw was her on her knees. Then she picked herself up and got in her car and drove away.

"She was obviously nervous, angry, and in some sort of pain." Reid informed them.

"I want you to go through her phone right now." Hotch told Garcia sternly.

"This is weird…" Garcia mumbled.

"What is it?" JJ asked urgently.

"The last place that her cell was, was the bay. About 3 miles south though. And her SUV's GPS isn't transmitting anymore. It was last in the bay too." She said thoughtfully.

"Get into her messages, Garcia." Hotch was getting impatient.

"Okay I'm in. There aren't any new or old messages out of the ordinary. One blocked number call and a draft published seconds before the phone went out." Garcia told them.

"What was it?" Rossi asked. He had always thought of Emily as like a daughter almost. An extremely stubborn, private daughter.

"All it says is Leonardo Heart." Garcia told them.

"LH." Morgan said out loud. It made sense, she was trying to give them a message.

"I want Morgan to go to the bay with some detectives and find her SUV and cell phone. JJ you are going to give a press release. Rossi and Reid work on a timeline. We can't forget that this guy has 3 kids also. Garcia, I need you to find Leonardo Heart. I don't care how, just find him." Hotch assigned everyone their work. Then he heads out to gather and inform the station of the missing agent as well.

Drip… drip… drip…

Emily's body throbbed, she was in a state of constant, intense pain. There was the sound of a slow, dulling dripping close by. The world was beginning to come back to reality. Swaying her head she realized that she was sitting. Groggily she opened her eyes. She was in a dark, dank cement room. She could also see the source of the dripping, a leaky pipe.

"What the hell?" She tried to move but couldn't. She felt rough rope wrapped around her wrists and ankles. They weren't wrapped together, but her wrists were wrapped to the arms of the wooden chair; and her legs were tied to the legs of the chair as well. Struggling and trying to move the chair, she notice that the legs were also bolted to the floor with makeshift brackets.

Exhaustion flooded over her, the small amount of energy she used to struggle in the chair was still more than she had. Hearing heavy footsteps come from behind her, her vision shifted into a fuzzy world once again. Head swaying heavily and vision becoming narrow, she heard his laughter.

"I told your friends that they aren't allowed to sit in on this game. But they are welcome to watch." He gave her a wolf like grin as he saw her lose consciousness.

Her vision closed and the only thing she heard in her dark world was Ranger walking away. His heavy boots landing on the steps loudly. Then she couldn't fight unconsciousness any longer.

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**That was Chapter 3 for ya! Okay so I hope you liked this chapter. This is part 1 of 2 parts. So next chapter will be Fun and Games Pt. 2. Review and thanks for reading! Comments, encouragement, idol chit-chat is also greatly welcomed!**

**-Jonezie**


	4. Fun and Games Pt 2

**This is an intense chapter. It explains a bit about Emily's past. You may be fooled. I didn't give away all her secrets. Hope you like this chapter. I have these thoughts running through my head and if I don't get them down, they bug me into insanity practically. Thanks for all the Reading and REVIEWS!!! I love reading them. They are so encouraging just knowing that people are reading this. U REVIEWERS ROX. and if you don't review, well you still rock. But I would appreciate it a lot if you review! Hope you like the chapter.  
-Jonezie**

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_Emily kept her standard F.B.I. issued weapon level with man's head. Likewise, he had his also raised eye-level to Emily. They were in a standoff. Neither looked like they were going to back down, both with determined glints in their eyes. Increasing the intensity of her stare, Emily squared her shoulders up._

_The man she was aiming at had short blonde hair, it was kind of shaggy, but just gave off the impression of being unkept. His eyes were a strange gold; they changed into a burning amber at times. His face was set in a serious manner. He was tall, but not too tall. She could also see his faint scar that wrapped from under the left part of his chin, up the left side of his nose, and ended on the edge of his right eyebrow. _

_There were light quick footsteps coming in their direction; neither moves, or showed any signs that they noticed someone coming. When the footsteps got closer, they stopped. Then there was a constant tapping sound. Someone was tapping their foot on the tile floor impatiently._

"_Well are you two going to stand around all day? We have things to do." An average height red-head told them. She had a motherly tone to her voice, like she was scolding little kids for fighting over a toy._

"_Not until she breaks first." The man said through the side of his mouth, still not breaking eye contact with Emily._

"_Like that will happen." A rather confident Emily told him. "I haven't lost yet!" _

"_Neither have I!" He countered._

"_Enough you two. You are like five year olds, I swear!" The red-head walked up and took both their guns out of their hands before either could protest. "Now go back up to the offices and get some work done. You guys can't stay holed up in the training area forever!"_

"_Fine." They both said at the same time. _

"_By the way Prentiss, I soooo won that time!" He told her over his should, he already made a dash for the stairs._

"_No way Leo! You were going to back down any second!" Emily yelled after him, chasing him up the stairs._

"_NO RUNNING!!!" The red-head yelled after them._

"_Loosen up Scarlet, they are just tired." A guy that had walked up behind her said. "They deserve it every once in a while. Not like our job is exactly easy. And they do all the hard work most of the time too." He scoffed._

"_Flint, will you shut up! Go up there and help them then. Someone needs to make sure they don't kill each other. And they quit using the safety about 3 months ago, so now these are actually loaded." Scarlet told him as she handed him the guns. "Go ahead and give them back to them." She huffed and walked towards the stairs._

"_Hey, why do I always have to give them back their toys?!?" He shouted up the stairs. He heard her stop somewhere about half way up._

"_Because you are the dumbass that makes me give them their stuff back!" Then she started walking again._

"_Sorry I believe that we can't have our best agents without their firearms." He said to himself._

Emily jolted out of her memory. She quickly remembered where she was. Going through all the things she did know about Ranger, she decided that she couldn't give him what he wanted.

"You're awake. That's good; I was worried that I might have hit you too hard." Ranger told her from somewhere behind her. "I need you good 'en awake for our game."

"Thanks for all the concern. If you were really worried than you would have given me something for this headache." Emily countered him.

"You sound rather angry. What? Don't like being forced to play games? I remember a time when you loved games Agent Prentiss. Loved the quest for victory, even loved the sick torture you put your opponents through. Do you remember that? Agent Prentiss, hmm?" He was waiting for an answer. His eyes were trained on the back of her head. He was sitting on a table that was about 1 ½ feet behind her. She couldn't see him, but she knew he was there.

"I didn't enjoy them as much as you may think." She growled. She remembered the little girls and the reason for their death. "I'm sorry about them, but killing girls now won't bring them back." She tried to reason with him.

"No. I lost everything when they were killed. They were MY everything. And what did you find huh? They are dead… because of you. If there is another reason, then tell me. But I know for a fact that there isn't. Because we have played before." He walked around in front of her. "About 6 or 7 years ago. A warehouse, my old killing station. Remember all the blood on your hands after that incident?" He was taunting her, triggering images to fly through her mind at a million miles an hour.

"I didn't have a choice!" She yelled, letting her anger rise. "You did those things, not me." She said more calmly.

"This is all about choice Agent Prentiss. I gave you a choice and you chose to kill them. You had other options remember? It was the cop or the kid. And you would always choose the kids. I still don't understand why though. You set my little angels up without any protection, but those other kids… what did they have that made you protect them?" He was yelling and spitting from rage. Balling up a fist he held it high in the air. "Tell me why?"

"It was my job."

CRUNCH!!!

You could hear the fist collide with Emily's ribs. She started to cough and gasp for breath. The hit shot pain signals through her entire body. Then…

CRUNCH!!!

This time the fist hit her square in the nose, causing her head to whip to the side. Still out of breath, she could feel the warm liquid gush from her nose. It covered her mouth, leaving the all-too-familiar taste of blood in her throat.

"YOUR JOB! YOU LET THEM DIE!" He was lost in rage and took several more punches to Emily's abdomen. After about 5 minutes of hitting and inaudible insults, he straightened his shirt. "Now I'm going to play a new game with you. This time, you will have two choices. Option 1: The older girl will die, and Option 2: The younger girl. And if you don't choose within a certain amount of time, you know what will happen." He leaned in close. "Because when we play my game, we don't screw around."

"I use to feel bad for you." Emily mumbled under her breath. This caused him to grin at her.

"How about I even let you get close to the girls too." He said as he started and walked out of her view of limited eye sight.

"Why them?" Emily yelled after him.

"You were still able to move on after I killed 27 people. Most of them were close to you also. I am going to win. And I can't just forget about my past, so why should I let you forget about yours? I was innocent also, you… you have so much blood on your hands that I'm surprised they let you stay in the F.B.I."

"You sick bastard. All this… just to get back at me! Just kill me if that is what you want." She spat angrily, growling as she felt pain electrify her body.

"I want to make you like me." He told her as he walked back into the room. Behind him were three girls. 2 of them were older, the other younger. "Children, this is Agent Prentiss. She is the one I told you about." He looked Emily straight in the eyes.

In that moment, Emily knew what he wanted. Ranger was a shell of a person. Emotions contorted until the only thing left was hate, rage, and pure sickness. He wasn't humane, he couldn't be. He hated living, but was unable to move on because he still had a job to finish. He wanted her to be like him, and she didn't know whether he was right or not. For about half a second, she felt fear cover her mind; remembering how often the division she worked in would bend rules and break protocol to get the job done. They were classified and couldn't be known by the public.

The last thing Emily thought before she turned her attention back to the girls was: How fuzzy is that line that separates him from me?

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**Tough though for Emily huh? Yeah she is hiding a dark past, with dark twists!!! This is great having people enjoy this story so much! I honestly thought that it would only be a couple people that liked to read this, but all the buzz has been a real encourager! Thanks for reading and please REVIEW!!! I love them reviews!!!**

**-Jonezie**

**P.S.- I DON'T own Criminal Minds**


	5. Meet Agent Heart or HeartLess?

**Okay, now this really starts to get you a little sad. I know... but you need to feel it if this story is going to turn out the way I hope. I put a lot of thinking into this Chapter and it begins to unravel a little about Emily's secrets. Hope you like it and REVIEW (even if you don't like it). I love reading your reviews, they give me strength to continue with this epic task of remembering to update!!!  
-Jonezie**

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"Agent Hotchner, what'd you find Morgan?" Hotch asked immediately after answering his phone. He just got finished letting the station know that there was also, now, a missing Federal Agent as well. He looked up at the clock hanging on the wall. JJ should almost be done with the press conference.

"Hotch, we found her SUV and cell phone." Morgan told him soberly.

"Where were they? Was she there?" Hotch was worried that his agent was harmed, he didn't know if he could deal with one of his team members being injured after all that has happened.

"They were IN the bay Hotch. It looks like someone actually drove it off the pier. We can't find Emily though, so that is good news I guess." Morgan informed Hotch.

"Thanks Morgan. Come back to the station." Hotch ordered and hung up his phone. Roughly putting it in his pocket, he saw JJ walking over to him rather hurriedly. "What's up JJ?"

"Garcia just called, Leonardo Heart is coming into the station. She told him that we had some questions about a previous co-worker. She said that he was coming at 5 and its 4:55." JJ told him. She hoped that they could just find Emily and there wouldn't be any harm done, but the longer she's gone, the worse it seems to get.

"Okay. Do you know what he…" Hotch wasn't able to finish his sentence as someone interrupted him.

"I'm Agent Heart. Something I can help you with? Your analyst wasn't very descriptive." A blonde man, with goldish, burning amber eyes asked. He had a distinctive scar, yet faded, that went from the left side of his chin, over his nose, and ended at the left edge of his right eyebrow. JJ was caught off guard by how exhausted he looked.

"Yes. I'm Special Agent Hotchner, and this is Agent Jareau, we both work in the BAU. I would like to speak to you in interview room 1. I have a few questions about a missing agent of mine." Hotch said, looking for a reaction from Agent Heart. But there wasn't any reaction at all, not even a hint that he knew what Hotch was talking about.

"Sure. Just remember that I have my own work that has to get done, so hurry it up." Agent Heart told him impatiently. Following Hotch to Interview 1, he sat down in the chair with a loud huff. "So who was it then went missing?"

Hotch sat down across from the other agent. "BAU Agent Emily Prentiss, do you know anything about it?"

"About what? Wait a second… you think that I did something to her." He asked getting angry.

"Take a look at this and tell me if you recognize it." Hotch showed him the note. "This was pinned to the body of a dead 5 year old. She was only 5, yet someone thought that this would be a 'fun' game to play." Hotch interrogated the other man.

Taking a look at the note, Leo froze. Many of the same thought Emily had when she received her letter, rushed through his head: He can't be alive, he was supposed to be dead. Then Leo noticed the signature at the bottom of the paper, LH. "That son of a bitch." Leo whispered; if Hotch hadn't been listening so intensely, he wouldn't have heard it at all.

"What? Isn't LH your initials and Agent Prentiss left a text message with your name, Leonardo Heart." Hotch informed him.

"So that's how you found me? I told her that it wouldn't work, she should have stayed with us." Looking up at Agent Hotchner, Leo stared into his eyes. His stare was conflicted, like he was fighting an internal battle. "This guy that took Emily… He isn't like the other serial killers you hunt. This guy goes by Ranger, and he only left my initials as a way for you to find Emily's past. He wants her to suffer for her past. Sorry but I'll take this case from here."

Agent Heart stood up and started for the door. Hotch turned around and stopped Leo from opening the door with his foot. "No, she is my Agent… It's my job to make sure she comes back safely." Hotch's voice was full of guilt.

"You don't know what the hell you're dealing with. I mean, you don't even know what her job was before she worked for the BAU!" Leo told Hotch angrily. He wasn't about to trust someone that didn't even know where his 'precious agent' worked at before.

"What are you talking about? She worked a desk job in the Intelligence Gathering Unit." Hotch told him. He was insulted by the accusation that he knew so little.

"Right… Desk job. So that is what they tell people." Leo said off-hand. Looking Hotch in the eye, yet again, he scoffed. "She wasn't some desk worker, if you really want to help…" Leo wanted to find Emily, but he could certainly use this BAU team to his advantage, if only he could tell them. "Fine. But every single one of your team must sign a gag order. I'll have the papers in 10 minutes, then we can talk." Leo pushed the door open and walked out of the interview room.

A confused Hotch was left looking after this strange agent. A man that was about Emily's age, but looked worn to his core. This agent had a good heart, even though he portrayed heartlessness.

JJ walked into the room. Noticing Hotch just standing there, she walked up to him. "Hey Hotch, Agent Heart tells me that if we want to stay on this case, we need to sign a gag order?"

"Yeah. Is the rest of the team here?" Hotch asked, seemingly ripped from his thoughts.

"Garcia is about 5 minutes away, but the rest are in the conference room. Umm… Hotch? What do you think Emily was hiding?" JJ asked Hotch; her voice showed fear, a very rare thing for the press liaison.

"I don't know…" Seemingly lost, Hotch walked towards the conference room. JJ followed close behind him.

"I'm Ky-Kyla. This is…" The little girl that Emily was suppose to be protecting and trying to save, was standing on the right side of the Ranger.

"Shwelby." The youngest girl piped up. She was scared and confused, but otherwise unharmed.

"Hi, I'm Lisa." Another girl, about the same as Kyla, said on the left side of the Ranger. She gave a small wave, and had a tear-streaked face.

"Good. Now that you all know each other, Agent Prentiss you have some time before we start our real game. These are just to make sure you know that you won't be able to save them all." The Ranger chuckled and brushed some hair away from Emily's ear. He spoke straight into it. "At the end of the day, when it is dark… That's when I will show these kids that not even a Big Bad F.B.I. Agent can protect them. Then tomorrow, they will go home; and you will stay here." His breath was hot on her ear, almost sounding like he was excited about the prospect of actually making her wish she was dead. "And then we will begin with 2 new kids. I want to see with one of my daughters you MAY have actually helped, if you and that damned partner of yours actually had the heart to think about the lives you forever altered and snuffed out." He ended his little speech with a hiss and walked out of the room.

The three girls were standing in front of her, and she didn't know what to do. Her team wouldn't be able to help her, hell she didn't even know if they knew she was gone. But even more difficult to think of was, would Leo help them or did he still hate me for my choice?

"He-He said you would save us?" Lisa pleaded to Emily, it just about made Emily's heart shatter.

"I swear I'll do whatever I can to stop him." Emily vowed. She didn't want to make a promise to them that she was sure she wouldn't be able to keep. "Whatever it takes, I WILL stop him." She assured the kids. The youngest, Shelby, smiled at her.

"I knew you were going to beat the bad guy! Me and the other girl Lara knew you would!" Then Shelby looked at her shoes. "But Lara had to leave; he said she was going to help get you to come here and save us! Did she really do all that?" Shelby asked, completely unaware of the pain that flowed through Emily, not just physical pain, but a stronger, sickening pain that made her want to just drown herself in cold water to wash it away.

"Yeah… she did." Emily told them, she was choked up to say the least. It was terrible, seeing their eyes full of hope and knowing that they would be crushed. Then she thought back to Ranger, "This must be what that sick bastard felt…" Emily whispered so low that she was positive none of the girls could hear her. All she was thinking was: our similarities are beginning to show through… And I think that he may be right, I didn't save his girls.

Emily shook her head in shame and then she couldn't bring herself to look into the kids eyes. She couldn't even look at their faces. All she could do was stare at the floor and listen to them tell her all about their lives… For she knew that this was the pain Ranger wanted to install in her… And he may just win.

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**Thanks for reading. I hope you liked this chapter. Review to tell me if I'm doing alright, or if I'm doing terrible. I guess that this was a ironic day to write about this sort of thing, I just went to a funeral and the emotions I saw and even felt, have helped me write some of these tough parts. Thanks for reading and please review!!! **

**-Jonezie**

**P.S.- Yet again I will tell you I DO NOT OWN CRIMINAL MINDS dammit!!! Just making sure everybody knows that :P**


	6. Push Until It Breaks

**Okay, this is the chapter that i'm sure tons of you have been waiting for. A turning point where you finally understand a little about what is going on. Since this is that chapter (at least for now) it is longer than the others. Hope you like it and REVIEW!!! Also at the end, in my authors note, I'm giving a shout out to my reviewers! Just a little thanks for your support!!!  
-Jonezie**

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Agent Heart sat down; looking at the papers carefully to make sure everyone signed the respective areas. After his inspection, he slid the papers into the middle of the big conference table that they were all seated at. Leaning the chair back so that there was only two legs on the floor, he put his hands behind his head. Letting a yawn escape his mouth, he closed his eyes.

"Ahem…" Hotch pretended to clear his throat, trying to get the strange agent so at least pretend like he cared. "Agent Hear…"

"Call me Leo. Since we are going to be sharing a dirty little secret, might as well be on the first name bases, aye?" Leo said calmly, merely opening one eye lazily.

"Fine then. Leo when are we going to…"

"What? Aren't you going to let me in on your name? I highly doubt that your team calls you Agent Hotchner 100% of the time." Leo told him, closing his eyes once again.

"Fine…" Hotch was getting annoyed. "You can call me Hotch."

"And them?" Leo inquired, still in the state of nonchalance.

"I'm JJ." JJ decided to speak up so this guy would get off his high horse and help them find their friend. "That is Morgan, Reid, Rossi, and Garcia." JJ motioned to the team members as she introduced their informal names.

"Good." Leo said with a little interest at least. "Now you want to know about this Ranger guy, huh?" Instead of going on with the story, he waited for them to answer verbally.

"Yes." Hotch said sternly, getting annoyed with the man.

"Are you so sure? I mean, you have no idea what you're getting into." Leo spoke directly to them, his words had a hidden meaning behind them that none of the BAU Agents could figure out. Opening both eyes and looking straight at the gag order in the center of the table, he sat the chair down on all fours. "Sometimes, not knowing certain things will help you sleep at night in the long run. I can tear up that order right now, and all of you could go back to the bliss of ignorance." Leo looked into every member eyes.

"We are going to find our partner, and not just because she is a member of this team, but because she is our friend." Morgan told him with a strong protective passion. Everyone nodded in agreement with him.

"Fine. But just remember that you can never go back. You aren't going to like what you hear either." Leo huffed.

"Are you going to tell us, or just keep dragging this on. The longer we wait around, the worse Prentiss will be off." Rossi spoke up this time, getting equally impatient. This caused Leo to turn his gaze onto the profiler. But instead of snapping at him or something else that was predicted by the team, Leo simply smiled.

"The IGU is an intelligence gathering unit of the government, but we don't go through paper work like the name leads on. Interrogation and infiltration has always worked far better in our opinion." Leo started off his story, looking for a reaction. The team simply looked confused. "Our job is to get the information, at any costs." Leo continued, this got the profilers' attention.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hotch asked, suspicious.

Ignoring the interruption, Leo went on. "After certain events in national security, the government issued our little unit. Emily and I were partners for about 2 years before even being assigned to run the IGU. They wanted two commanders; just in case the power was a little too much for one person. There were no rule books, no protocols; we set up the whole division."

"And why would they want two inexperienced agents to do that?" Rossi asked, not exactly taking the other agent's word.

"Because people like you, and Hotch, wouldn't have been able to do what we did." Leo answered calmly. "I called in my own team as well. They should be here shortly." He added. After the little disruption he continued. "I'm not saying that I'm proud of my job. We don't get what you do. You are lucky; you get to see the people you help. All we got was to see how miserable we made life for the guilty." Leo grimaced, not looking back to having to go back to work soon.

"How does all this fit into Emily being kidnapped?" Morgan questioned, Reid agreed.

"We aren't always sure they're guilty." Leo said in a breathless whisper. "Sometimes we mess up; but unlike you guys, when we screw up, we destroy a lot of people." Looking at his hands he decided that he would tell them how Ranger was first met. "This is why Ranger took Em."

"_Hey Raider, what's on the agenda today?" Leo asked as he came into the tech's office area. All around were computer parts, monitors, and CPUs hooked up. Raider was on a keyboard and doing about a hundred different searches on varies items. Clicking a button, a whole new theme popped up, there were murder scenes, police reports, autopsies, and some other images that would make someone throw up._

"_Oye! Looks like we got some guy from up town involved with some bad people. Case file here says that someone from on the top of the food chain, wants this case solved. Apparently this is the only guy they think could have done it, name's Ryan Ranger." Raider told him in a slight accent. _

"_Okay, I'll tell Em and we can get this guy talking before lunch. Hey you know where Scarlet and Flint are?" Leo asked as he started walking out of the dark room._

"_No… Must be in the rec room though…" Raider told him. "Aye, you hear me Leo?" _

"_Wha? Ah, yeah sure. Whatever you say." Leo said over his shoulder._

_He walked into the office part of the building and found Emily asleep in her office. She was reviewing a file and fell asleep right on the desk. Leo let out a small chuckle and grabbed a cup of water from the water cooler next to her desk._

"_WAKEY WAKEY EM!!!" Leo shouted as he poured the water on Emily's head. Emily jump from her desk with a start._

"_WHAT THE HELL LEO!?!" She was unhappy about his wake up call, and chased him out of the room. _

"_We have to meet the others in the conference room! We got a new case!" Leo yelled to her as she shut her door. Smiling he went to find Flint, Scarlet, and Twitch._

_After Leo found all of them and got them into the conference room, he saw Emily sitting patiently at the table. "That is weird." He said to himself off hand. Opening the door to the room a little more so he could walk in, a wastebasket filled with water landed square on his head. Everyone laughed at him as they took their seats. Scarlet gave Emily a mocked scolding and Flint gave her a high-five. This caused Scarlet to glare at him for supporting this childish behavior. She was always the motherly type. Twitch just stared at Leo for a second and sat down._

"_Raider sent the stuff here. This is Ryan Ranger." Leo said as he took the garbage can off his head and pointed towards a huge screen. "He is thought to be involved in some messy stuff with some of the wrong crowd. You guys already know our job. Twitch, I want you to set up cameras throughout the whole house and take some DNA and anything else you think will be useful." Leo ordered Twitch, who happily agreed. "I want Flint and Scarlet to get some information on him from friends, dentist, hairdresser, anyone that might know any detail about him. And do it discreetly too." Leo told them._

"_Sure boss. Not like you ever let us not be secretive." Flint complained and started to follow Twitch, who was so eager to snoop around the house that he already left._

"_Flint will you actually listen for once?" Scarlet said shaking her head. She wasn't actually mad at him and was never really mad at any of the team, she just worried about them._

"_Leo, you and me better read up on our new friend." Emily told him and started for the boxes that had information about all of Ryan Ranger's life._

_About two days later…._

_They had all the info on Mr. Ranger that they needed. It would assume that he was the only real suspect the case had. He was a father of two girls, one was 6 the other was 12. They were blonde and smiled a lot. Emily and Leo always had a plan about an interrogation. Leo would do a lot of yelling and get the situation heated and Emily would screw with his head, get inside and make him let things slip. She always was good at that approach and only had to have Leo beat someone up twice. Usually it was under common knowledge that the mental pain Emily caused, was way worse than anything Leo ever did._

_Leo had Ryan taken to the interrogation room. He entered first and started asking his questions._

"_So Ryan, you ever hear of this guy?" Leo asked as he slid a photo in front of Ryan._

"_N-no…" Ryan was scared and freaked out. "I have to get home soon, m-my kids will be home from school…"_

"_Don't you worry about your little kidos. They'll be just fine, as long as you answer some questions. Now… Do you know this man?" Leo pointed to the picture._

"_No. I swear I don't know him." Ryan said even more scared._

"_Really!" Leo stood up so fast that his chair fell over. This caused Ryan to lean backwards with wide eyes. "I know that you know him! He called you last week!" Leo hit the table with a fist._

"_H-he just sa-said th-that he wa-wanted his money ba-back." Ryan was stammering extremely bad. This was the point that Prentiss walked into the room._

"_I hear you've been playing with some bad guys Ranger. Is that so?" Emily asked with a strange tone in her voice. Ryan looked at the badge that was around her neck._

"_Emi…"_

"_You will only address us as Agent Prentiss and Agent Heart! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!" Leo told him. Leo looked totally enraged by the use of Emily's first name. He actually made the table bounce as he hit it so hard with both hands._

"_Yes sir." Ryan said quickly, scared out of his mind._

"_So Ranger, what money did he want?" Emily asked._

"_I-I can't tell you." Ryan told her, gulping._

"_Really? Hmmm… Well then I guess that since we know you were working for him, maybe some reporter looking for their big break will hear a rumor about someone generously helping the police catch this guy then." Emily appeared to be talking to Leo._

"_You're right. That would really be a shame. Considering that he will be in here, and his kids will be at home. And we are so swamped that I don't know if we could spare the units to watch over them."Leo told her, they were continuing their plan._

"_No! If he even thinks that, they will kill them." Ryan said pleading. He was begging the agents now._

"_Such a real shame that we can't protect them." Emily continued, ignoring Ranger's outburst. "Maybe we will donate a nice tombstone, you know… For our condolences." Turning back to Ranger she decided he was ready. "So you see? If you don't cooperate, this can get real ugly, real fast."_

_Ryan had tears in his eyes. He loved his daughters, and didn't want them to get hurt. "I used him to buy my house." Ryan told them in utter shame._

"_Come on Ranger? You don't think that that will fly with us, do you?" Leo asked him._

"_What do you mean? That is all I know." Ryan was terrified that they didn't believe him._

"_Sure. Hey Leo, what was the name of that kid that just finished school? He was really looking forward to a good story." Emily spoke to Leo again. They weren't convinced that that was all Ranger knew. "And here I thought you cared about your innocent little girls. Guess not." Emily said as they walked out, leaving Ryan begging them to believe him._

_That night…_

"_Shit…" Flint ran into Emily's office. He was panting heavily and had his hands on his knees trying to catch some breath._

"_What the hell Flint?" Emily asked, looking up from her paper work._

"_The…The Ranger guy… He… He…" Flint said trying to catch his breath and talk at the same time._

"_Spit it out Flint." Emily told him. She always saw him as a brotherly figure._

"_He's innocent. The guy was just found and confessed to the local authorities." He told her. Emily shot straight up out of her chair._

"_Why would he do that?" She was worried now._

"_They caught him red-handed. He turned over the other guy to save himself some years." Flint informed her._

"_Shit… We need to get over to the Ranger Residence right now." Emily told him as she grabbed her jacket and her keys. They had leaked the information earlier that day, and it had just aired. Emily had expected Ranger to flip over the other guy, but he really didn't know anything. His kids were still at the house with their friend's mom._

_Emily drove Flint and her to the house as fast as possible, not caring about speeding laws. When they got there, her heart sunk. The front door to the house was open and had blood on the knob. She told Flint to take the front and she'd get the back._

_When she got to the back, she could hear Flint yell that the babysitter was dead. Then there was the sound of someone running, Emily chased the sound and saw a man running away with a gun in his hands. When he saw that Emily had him cornered, he raised his gun to shoot her. She shot him first and made sure he was dead. All she was worried about in that moment was about the kids._

_Meeting Flint back inside the house, she asked him. "Did you find the kids?" _

"_No. I didn't check upstairs though." Flint said numb._

"_I'll go." Emily told him and only received a dazed nod. They weren't use to hurting innocent people, and this defiantly counted as hurting the innocent. Walking up the stairs, she took a look in a few of the rooms. Then she found the last room and opened the door._

_The scene horrified even her, blood was everywhere; it was on the walls, ceiling, bed, and even the photograph of the girls and Ryan on a park bench. She looked around and saw two mutilated bodies; one was 6 and the other 12. She stood there, staring at them. Her mind saved the images and she could see them when she closed her eyes. _

_She stumbled out of the room and down the hallway. When she reached the stairs, she saw her hands shaking uncontrollably. Walking down the stairs, one step at a time, she looked Flint. She shook her head and he fell to his knees. She knew that he felt bad, but she was the one who ordered the whole thing. She told Ranger that he didn't care about his kids, but now he didn't have the chance to show her how wrong she really was._

"_Did you call it in?" She asked Flint softly. He looked up at her blankly for a second, then slowly nodded._

_The next morning…_

_Leo entered the interrogation room with a different attitude, and this time Emily followed closely behind. He sat down across from Ranger and gave him a picture of his daughters. Emily sat in the seat next to Leo, she gave Ranger his release papers._

"_What does this mean?" Ranger asked confused. He didn't know why they would give him the picture when he could just go home and get it himself._

"_We didn't get there in time." Emily said in a low voice, lathered with regret._

"_What do you mean by didn't get there in time?" Ryan asked voice almost past a breaking point._

"_When we got there, your kids were already dead. Agent Prentiss shot the man responsible." Leo told him softly, even he felt a great deal of guilt._

"_YOU GOT MY DAUGHTERS KILLED!" Ryan was in a mixture of outrage and pain. He stood up, but immediately fell back to his chair. He sat there for several seconds, unsure what to do. Finally he looked up at Emily._

"_Sorry for your loss." Emily told him, even she knew that this one line was more of an insult than a condolence, but she didn't have anything else to tell him._

"_No." Ranger looked her straight in the eyes. He was broken; a shell of a human, only had rage, hatred, and the drive to cause pain. "You aren't. But you will be. You will regret this every second of your life. Not right now, but I promise you on their lives, you will." He hissed at her. Then stood up with the release paper and stumbled out of the room._

"_Ryan I…" Emily called after him, not even sure how she was going to finish her sentence._

"_It's Ranger, from now on." Was all he said as he disappeared. He left the photo of his girls on the table and showed no signs of going back for it._

"That is why he is going to make her suffer far worse than death…" Leo told the wide eyed team soberly.

"Agent Prentiss it's time." Ranger said as he walked into the room. The girls had fallen asleep around her as they were in mid-sentence.

"Don't do this." Emily's voice was almost pleading, but still held a high commanding tone.

"I told you. Now doesn't it hurt to have to sit there and know that the people you were suppose to protect, will die because of you?" Ranger said to her darkly. Then he took out a gun and aimed it at Shelby. "Don't worry though, I'll make it quick." He smiled as he let out three precise shots.

Emily sat there, covered in blood from the splatter. All she could do was watch him, and she knew that he enjoyed this, not for his action, but what it caused her to do. She shook, much like the night his girls were killed, she shook with extreme force. Then she turned to look him straight in the eyes with an eerie, level glare.

"I. Will. Kill. You." She enunciated every word, to make sure he got the point. This caused him to take a small step back. Then he huffed angrily and took the bud of the gun and hit her in the rib cage until she passed out. But before she passed out she told him, with blood dripping out of her mouth, "I will kill you, because neither of us can live, until we establish who wins, and loser loses their life." She stated.

"Good to see that we are on the same page Agent Prentiss." And with that he walked briskly out of the room, angry at himself for letting her ruffle him.

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**Hope you liked it!!! Okay for this author's note, I'm thanking my reviewers for their support. They are: Ninja Bagel, Iuyla, Black Tulip, Potion, jessalynnGSR, Angelus Lunae, tazlvr2001, Lemony2rb2, xx. AngieTaylor .xx, and cmfanbex. Thank you guys for reviewing!!! A special thanks for Ninja Bagel for helping me out with a few questions I had about the story! You guys all rox!**

**-Jonezie**

**P.S.- (Yet a freakin 'gain) I don't own Criminal Minds.**


	7. The Draw Pt 1

**Alrighty... So I was up until about 1 a.m. writing this chapter. I had an idea and was rolling with it. My plan was to have it up so you guys could read it in the morning. When I tried to upload it, it kept saying there was some sort of error. That really annoyed me. So without further ado, this is Chapter 7: The Draw Pt. 1. (Part 2 will be coming shortly) Enjoy!!! AND REVIEW! Thanks.  
-Jonezie**

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"I'm looking for Agent Heart. We were told to meet him here." A woman with bright red hair told the cop that was at the entrance. Behind her was a younger man and another man, roughly the same age as her.

"Over there ma'am." The cop pointed to the conference room politely. She smiled at him and his eyes lit up slightly at the gesture. In return, he did a little bow and waved his hand in the direction of the room.

At this point, Leo had looked out the window and saw the transaction. He immediately got off his seat, the profilers were still digesting the story he told them. He sharply shoved his chair aside and opened the door with malice, walking straight towards the group.

"Well, well, aren't you a charmer?" Leo said to the cop. The cop in turn looked up at Leo, he was confused at the man's reaction.

"Sorry? I wasn't encroaching on anything, was I?" The young cop asked cockily, wiggling his eyebrows for effect. Leo radiated rage, shoulders tensing up, back ridged, and teeth bared at the cop in a snarl. The profilers were in the room, simply watching Leo's odd behavior. Leo was able to tell a horrific story with little emotion, yet when someone was hitting on this woman, he flipped out. Morgan stood up and was going to break it off, but Leo was quicker.

Leo saw Morgan stand out of the corner of his eye, and gave him a glare that told him to sit back down. Morgan did so, not even sure why he listened, but had the hair on the back of his neck raised. Then Leo turned his deathly glare on the still flaunting cop. The team noticed the tall man take a step to the side, and tug the red-head a little over too. The younger agent simply stood alert, feet planted on the ground.

In a flash, Leo shoved the cop straight against the closest wall. The cop's feet weren't on the floor anymore, and Leo was actually holding him 8 in. off the ground, by the collar of the cop's shirt. This action caused everyone's attention. When the cop's friends went to help him, the younger guy blocked them.

"Hey fellas, let's all just let them settle this, huh?" The kid said in a slightly rushed tone.

"Leo… He was just flirting. No need to kill him for that." The red-head tried to calm Leo, even though they all seemed to know he would react this way.

"Scarlet is right… He maybe a dumbass, but he that isn't a crime. If it were, you would have thrown my ass in jail a while ago." The tall man agreed.

"Go ahead Leo; I say we rip him to shreds. Raider and Scarlet don't know what they're talking about." The kid said through gritted teeth, obviously mad that the cop wasn't getting proper punishment.

"Twitch! What the hell?" Scarlet was mad at her long time friend for supporting this behavior, but it gave her a source of comfort.

Leo let out a slow, long chuckle; then looked directly into the cop's eyes. Leaning closer, until his mouth was just centimeters from the cop's ear, he whispered cynically. "Ever even look at her with those eyes, smile at her just a little too cheerfully; and I will take my friend's advice and rip you to shreds. Understand?" Leo asked him. The cop hurriedly nodded yes.

"Good." Leo said louder and shoved the guy into the ground. "Stay there before I change my mind."

"Yes sir!" The cop was breathing rapidly, scared out of his mind.

They all came back to the conference room, Leo sitting back in his chair. Scarlet was sizing them up as she found a seat, and Raider only took a quick glance at the screen on the wall. Twitch stood between Scarlet and Leo, shifting from his left foot, to the right out of habit.

As Scarlet was looking around the room, she could sense who had kids at home, no doubt waiting for their return. The two she sensed was Hotch and JJ. She then realized that none of them knew why they came here, except that Leo told them they had another case.

"I'm Scarlet, this is Raider." She motioned to Raider. "And the fidgeting one is Twitch. He's actually a good guy, if you can get past the tough guy exterior." Scarlet laughed as Twitch's body went still by her accusation.

"Is there another name you would like us to call you? For formal matters perhaps?" Hotch asked them, not understanding why they were so nickname oriented.

"Sorry Mr. Drill Sgt. But we don't have real names I guess you can say." Scarlet told them. She winked at Hotch and he went flush.

"Okay then. You can call me JJ. That is Morgan, Garcia, Reid, Rossi, and Hotch." She ended with a hand motioned at the still flush faced man.

"Why are we here?" Raider asked Leo, ignoring the group.

"Ranger." Was all Leo said, and every one of the IGU Agents froze, even Twitch remained as still as a statue. Scarlet's mood had shifted after hearing that name, and she was about to walk out of the room, except Leo stopped her with one more phrase. "He took Emily." And with that Scarlet turned back around and sat in her chair.

"That Bastard!" Raider growled loudly. Leo noticed that Morgan was getting restless.

"We can't keep wasting our time talking; we need to find those kids." Morgan urged. Leo shook his head solemnly. Scarlet looked at Leo, who nodded to her. Her jaw clenched and she looked like she was going to yell, but instead she simply gave a sharp nod in the direction of their team.

"Why can't we go looking at least?" Morgan asked, hating the feeling of helplessness.

"Because they are already dead. They were as good as dead the moment he took them." Leo told him forcefully. JJ cringed, hating the thought of innocent kids being the victims.

"You can't know for sure!" Morgan countered, not liking this guy's pessimistic outlook.

"I do. I told you before, they have played this game once before." Leo spoke, but he sounded like he wasn't really there, like he was lost in his short life's many painful memories.

"What happened then?" Rossi asked, hoping for some insight on what will happen this time.

"It was a draw, neither won." Leo said, still distant. Reid wasn't happy with their reluctantness.

"This information could be useful in finding her now." Reid spoke up for the first time pretty much.

"Garcia is it? Can you and Raider see if you can find anything?" Leo turned his attention to the quiet computer tech. She was very unhappy to hear the story about how they met Ranger, and that was putting it lightly. He actually saw her cry a few times.

"What should I look for?" She asked Hotch and Leo at the same time, not sure who to really ask.

"Raider will show you." Leo said gently, in more of a mentorish tone.

"I'll follow you." Raider told her calmly, catching Leo's drift to be very polite and kind.

"So are you going to tell us or what?" Rossi was also unhappy with the news that Leo told him. He was even angrier that Leo refused to tell them a key event in the Ranger story.

"I can't tell you for sure. I wasn't there. But in clip notes version: There were a cop and a kid that went missing, he forced Emily to go with him, kept her in a warehouse and made her play the game. Then he messed up, she got away. He had the place rigged to explode and ended up locking them both inside, we thought they were both dead. She survived, but we couldn't find him and presumed him as dead. In that case, 24 undercover IGU agents were killed, 2 police officers, and 1 of our own." He added in a quiet voice. He promised that he wouldn't tell anyone the full story about what happened, and he owed her at least that much.

"Why?" JJ breathed out. She couldn't think that anyone would want to kill that many people, just to get back at someone.

"It isn't easy to hurt Emily. And he wanted her to really hurt. About a year later, she came to work at the BAU. Her injuries just got fully healed when she started working." Leo informed them.

"Why such a long cooling off period?" Morgan asked.

"Planning; he learned how to make bombs the last time, I don't know what he has up his sleeves now." Leo seemed exhausted. Even thinking about that day made him almost physically sick.

"And your agent?" Hotch asked, knowing this was a soft spot.

"His name was Flint. He died protecting his family." Scarlet choked out.

"He was brave, and the best friend I ever had." Twitch spoke into the tense air.

There was a knock on the door. Hotch motioned for them to come in and the same cop from earlier skittered in. He had three files in his hands. Placing them gently in front of Leo he stood back and saluted.

"Sir, they just found the three kids in the bay. There was a note attached to one. It said: Playing for All or Nothing." The cop said and almost ran out of the room. Leo got strange looks from almost all of his team; meanwhile the BAU team was horrified by the event.

"I told you." Leo said off-handedly.

* * *

_Emily is walking to the house of the first missing child. It is quiet, and she has a feeling that this case is going to get bad. Looking at her watch, she notices it is midnight. Realizing that it is too late to go and talk to the parents, she decides to go eat dinner. Just as she reaches for her car door, her cell phone goes off._

_RING….RING…RING…_

_She picks it up just before the fourth ring. "Hello?" She asks, noticing the blocked number._

"_You always seem to be too late Agent Prentiss." The voice she dreads is speaking to her through the other phone._

"_Did you take them?" Emily questioned forcefully._

"_Depends… Who are we speaking of?" The Ranger almost sounded giddy with the tension._

"_The kid… and the agent." She told him._

"_Well maybe I did." He said off-hand. "If you even care, I want you to meet me at the abandoned warehouse on the west side of town." He commanded and hung up._

_Knowing she doesn't have any other choice, she gets into her car and starts driving to the warehouse. Deciding that her only option would mean actually facing him, her only coherent thought at that very moment was: I don't have to win; I just have to make sure he loses._

…_.(to be continued in next chapter)…_

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**Okay, so next chapter will start off in Emily's memory of what happened. She is unconsious right now, so it is sort of a flashback I guess. Hope you liked this chapter and are looking forward to the next one. It will be uploaded shortly, a day or so. So review and tell me how you liked it!**

**-Jonezie**

**I don't own Criminal Minds**


	8. The Draw Pt 2

**Okay this is Part 2 of The Draw. Now remember this is about the game that Emily first played with Ranger. Sorry I haven't updated for a few days, I was suffering some exhaustion. I usually have to type at like midnight then I don't get done for a couple hours. I guess I can't survive on 4 hours of sleep everyday. You can imagen my disappointment at that fact. Well I hope you like this chapter! Review and tell me a little bit about what I'm doing right, wrong, or just to tell me you're reading! Thanks.  
-Jonezie**

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_Emily drove her car with a calm demeanor, knowing that she couldn't afford getting a ticket or being stopped. If Ranger wanted to hurt her, this was his chance. She was also aware that he didn't even tell her not to call her team, because she already knew that he would be gone by the time they got there. The only way, was to face him alone. She was ready to except the fact that she would probably die in the showdown. She just hoped that she could save the little kid and the missing agent. _

_As she pulled into the warehouse parking lot, she noticed that it was in a rundown part of town. A car could be left for weeks without being noticed, probability was it would be stolen beforehand. Ranger had chosen his playing field well. The warehouse was big on the outside, it had computerized locking doors. Emily parked in the back of the lot, not wanting to have to be so close to the actual building. She felt the strange tension hanging in the air._

_As she got out of the car, she slowly closed the door. As she went to the back of her car and opened the trunk, she slide up a secret compartment underneath. She had a spare pistol, ammunition, and two knifes; one was to strap to her leg, the other went inside her coat. Being an IGU Agent had its perks, even if the job was hell most of the time. Closing the compartment, she started to lazily walk towards the front entrance. Emily was aware that Ranger wouldn't fall for any old police tricks, he had too long to prepare. Somewhere deep down, she knew that this would happen._

_When she finally reached the door, she confidently put her hand on the knob and opened it without hesitation. She was expecting to be shot the moment she opened the door, but there was nothing. She stepped further into the empty place, and saw no one. Emily began to wonder if maybe he had spooked and left town. As she went to stand in the center of the large room, she noticed gruff scuffling noises. She turned toward them and saw Ranger; he stood about ten feet behind her. She sighed and turned, just waiting for a loud bang to go off at any moment. Nothing. She looked him in the eyes as she stood facing him, confused by his actions._

"_I'm not stupid Agent Prentiss. I know that killing you, will never be enough. I need to make you want to give anything to be out of your misery. And when I'm done, you WILL wish for death." He said through gritted teeth. _

"_Tell me why I shouldn't just shoot you now? You've got nothing, no hostage, no gun, nothing." Emily questioned him, portraying more confidence than she actually had._

"_Because… You shoot me and you will never be able to warn your friend of a very unpleasant present waiting for him in his car." Ranger chuckled at the inside joke._

"_Who?" Emily asked as soon as he was done. She cared about her team like they were blood._

"_I don't know…" Ranger said as he gave off the expression of thinking about it. "Maybe I would tell you if you gave me your weapons." _

"…" _Emily thought about it. She was sure that he would find some way to turn this around, but she couldn't just let someone die. "Fine." Emily told him and tossed her standard issued weapon away from them both._

"_Ah ah ah ahh." Ranger told her in a scolding manner, wiggling his index finger. "All of them. Other gun and knives too." _

_Dammit, Emily thought. Then she threw her other pistol and both knives in the same direction as her first toss. "There." She was feeling slightly vulnerable now._

"_Good Agent Prentiss. Now how about you just hand me your phone and take a seat right there." Ranger told her as he motioned toward a chair. She did as she was commanded, very distastefully so._

"_What now? You just going to let him die?" She challenged._

"_I'm not you." He spat back. He put her phone in his pocket and pulled out a gun from his coat. With a grin on his face, he took zip ties and tied her hands together behind her back. She was not happy about being restricted, and shifted restlessly. "There we go. All snug?" He asked sarcastically._

"_Like a fucking bug in a rug." She growled at him._

_He walked out of the room and she couldn't see or hear him anymore. She struggled to free herself and when it didn't work, she studied her surroundings. Looking around she saw that there were old crates filled with unknown items all around. It looked like an old chemical factory, really old, like maybe 50's old. But it had computer operated doors and lockdown system. The floor was cement and had a manhole cover about 16 feet to her left. She was surprised that a place with this amount of security, it must have been like a storage area._

_He returned to the room with a little boy slung over his shoulder and the missing agent walking with his hands up, in front of him. Ranger had a gun pointed at his back, close enough that the agent couldn't run, far enough that the agent couldn't turn the gun on him. Ranger looked at Emily and smirked a sickly, hollow smirk._

"_So are you ready. I wonder…" He thought aloud as he put the boy down about five feet in front of Prentiss. He motioned for the Agent to sit beside the unconscious boy. "Who will you choose?" He asked._

"_What?" Prentiss was confused by the question. He hadn't really asked her anything._

"_I mean… WHO WILL DIE!" He yelled at her, the Agent flinched slightly. Emily remained still, in a state of shock. "So… Your agent, or try to defend your word and protect the innocent boy?"_

"_You can't expect me to…"_

"_Do it or they both die." He informed her so calmly that she wondered if he had any emotions left inside._

"_No." She tried to stare him down, but the whimpering child distracted her. Ranger took his gun and pointed it at the kid's head._

"_Fine your choice." He said and was just about to pull the trigger._

"_Wait!" Emily shouted. She wasn't certain what she was going to say now. The agent just looked at her with sad eyes and nodded his approval. "The agent." She whispered so quietly that she hoped Ranger wouldn't hear her, but he did._

_BANG_

_The kid shot up from the floor, look around himself wildly. His gaze stopped when it reached the dead man right next to him. He jumped back and stared at the blood as it started to drain down the manhole. The kid didn't move, just sat there in a daze of disbelief, realization, then horror._

_Emily stared at the Agent the whole time, from when he nodded her the okay to after his lifeless body hit the floor. She watched his blood drain away slowly, then looked over at the child. This once innocent, happy boy has been forever scarred by this and Emily began to feel very nauseated as she thought about it. Ranger just laughed, like an absolute manic, he enjoyed the reaction he got out of Agent Prentiss._

"_So do you regret it?" He said between chuckles. "Do you regret killing my daughters now?" His voice had become very serious._

"_I've always regretted it." Emily said blankly, detached from reality almost._

"_You don't even know what regret is until after I am done." Ranger told her even more darkly. The child started to cry out for his parents, he was young, not even in 3__rd__ grade yet. "Shut up!" Ranger yelled at him. Then he began to walk away._

"_Where are you going?" Emily's voice was full of anger, hate, and rage; strangely she felt all this towards herself._

"_To drop him off. Then grab a new kid. Another Agent too." Then he stalked off towards the door. "Didn't think you were done, did you?" He asked, not even turning around._

_It had been a full 24 hours since Ranger had taken Prentiss. It had also been 7 games since then as well. Every time Ranger gave her the choice of who to save, she had to choose the kid. She didn't know whether to regret it, or not… Some of the kids were bad, scum-bag material even, but she had to give them a chance to redeem themselves. And every time, Ranger dropped the kid off back into town, by a police station. Ranger had just brought back the 8__th__ game and Emily felt like she had already passed her breaking point, and was just going through motions now._

_This game was different, instead of the Agent manning up and telling Emily that choosing to save the innocent child was the only choice, he begged her to pick him. He was on his knees literally begging for his life. Emily saw the fear in his eyes, then she looked at the 7 year old, who was probably homeless. She shook her head no and the agents face fell._

"_Bu-But I do-don't want to di-di-die." He stuttered as he looked up at the short barrel of the pistol in Ranger's hand. "Not me, please." He whispered vainly to Ranger. _

"_Don't blame me, I didn't choose." Ranger told him. The agent gave a quick look to Prentiss then tears streamed down his face. _

_BANG_

_Emily mentally collapsed, the vision of him crying, begging for her to save him, forever etched into her mind. Ranger took the girl away and Emily was left alone again. It was dark and she was alone, the visions started to haunt her. She heard screams, saw faces, felt the fear, all this gave her goosebumps, made her want to throw up. All the while, Ranger is taking pleasure in the murdering game he invented. _

_When Ranger returned, he told Agent Prentiss that he called the Agent. She looked at him confused, and then remembered the agreement that got her stuck in this hell in the first place._

"_Who was it?" She had no emotion in her voice. Her eyes were devoid of everything and anything._

"_I called Agent Heart, but Flint answered. Told him about the little bomb, then told him about the warehouse. He should be here shortly, I made sure he was clear that telling anyone would be a mistake." Ranger assured her. Emily was terrified that she had endangered Flint, who in all retrospect was really like a brother._

"_No." She felt her exhaustion hit her, but even the amount of physical and mental stress couldn't stop her from being petrified for Flint._

"_Yes…" Ranger shook his head. "Now he will die." Ranger lent in close, face only inches from Emily's, she could smell the death on him. "And you shall watch, Agent Prentiss." He seethed. He walked out of the room and didn't return. _

_Just then, Emily heard the door open. She knew it was Flint, if she was trapped in a burning building, he would be the one stupid, but sincere enough to go in with her._

"_Flint NO! Go!" Emily yelled at him. He stuck his childish grin on and just laughed. Emily didn't understand him at all. "What the hell are you doing? Go. Ranger will kill you." He still came jogging up to her._

_He stood directly in front of her, he stuffed something from his hand into her's. She still had them tied together, but there was a knife now firmly held in them. He brought her a knife and she knew that he was aware of the danger. She felt like she just wanted to cry, give up on everything and let it all go._

"_Now, now, I'm here. Hey, remember when I first joined and you told me that you wouldn't just let me fool around? Well you were wrong, I still fool around like a total idiot!" He laughed and Emily let out a little laugh. "See." He gave her a hug and whispered in her ear. "You will live, I made sure of it." Then he lent back and spoke in a voice that only good friends would know was fake. "What do you mean trap? He told me if I didn't call this in that you would be released." He said it a little louder and winked at Emily._

_Ranger walked out of the room, gun held level with Flint, who didn't budge. Ranger kept walking toward him and didn't waver his gun._

"_Sorry Flint, I lied." He said with a little mockery, he was told Flint wasn't the brightest of agents._

"_Damn." Flint's acting was good and he put his hands up. He was waiting. Ranger started to walk up behind him and… he got a little too close and…_

_Flash, Flint turned around and was in a fight with Ranger for it. They both slid into the side of some crates, causing dust to be thrown into the air. Emily started coughing, trying to see through the haze. As the dust was starting to settle, she saw Ranger jerk back then make a quick jerk in. _

"_I was hoping to save that surprise for Agent Prentiss." He muttered to Flint. Flint's body was jagged, still unmoving. He looked like a statue, still standing; he had a hand on the hilt of a long knife. Ranger stood back and held his gun up close to his face, momentarily distracted. _

_Flint turned and looked straight at Prentiss, the knife in full view. She saw his white undershirt begin to stain red. But in all the chaos, Flint managed to smile. He smiled wide and toothy, blood gushed out between his teeth. Emily stared at him wide eyed, fear finally sketching pain in her eyes. He fell to his knees still looking at her, his smile was still wide. _

_Ranger had decided that his gun was fine, and pointed it straight at the kneeling agent's head. He pushed the gun to where it was pressed up against the line between his hair and his forehead. Ranger scowled at the smile on the agent's face._

"_You're going to die." Ranger stated the obvious. He was confused by the man's smile. It was like Flint found this situation humorous, or he thought of a really good punch line._

"_I'll see you in hell." Flint gurgled, blood flowing easily from his mouth now. He was looking at Ranger when he spoke, then turned his gaze back at Emily. "Scarlet would ki… kick my ass if I let you go 'en git your 'elf killed." He managed to choke out. His smile was lazily placed on his face now, as he envisioned Scarlet. He had really hoped to get a chance to go out with her, but he guessed the irony that he'll never get the chance was now present. He only ever told Leo and Prentiss of his love-struck emotion for Scarlet. _

"_All the pain you cause." BANG. That was all Ranger said before he pulled the trigger. Emily physically cringed as she saw her best friend, brother, die with a stupid smile on his face. She almost dropped the knife that he gave his life to give her. But she didn't, she couldn't let his death be in vain. Ranger began to walk away. Then he heard sirens go off. They were all around the warehouse._

"_DAMN! He wasn't as stupid as he looked." Ranger cursed as he looked out a far window and saw F.B.I. cars all around the place. Most of the agents were IGU, but some were cops. _

"_How many did you kill while you were out?" Emily asked him, barely able to talk from the measure of hatred she had for him. _

"_Let's see… Your little peppy friend here was my 27__th__ kill, so…" Ranger pretended to count on his fingers. "Ehh… Too many to keep track of I guess." He murmured. "No worries. Soon this whole place and the next several blocks will be incinerated." He shrugged._

"_Incinerated?" Emily didn't understand why Ranger would kill himself._

"_Yeah. Once I kill you, I don't have anything holding me back." He told her like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Then he left to go to the other room. She heard him call the F.B.I. directly, using her phone no doubt. "Come in and she dies." He stated into the phone. Then he hung up._

_Now Emily busied herself with getting untied. First she used the knife to cut the zip ties, then she cut the ones on her feet, that he must have put on when she passed out momentarily from exhaustion. She stood up and quietly ran to get her gun from the floor. All this time and he didn't pick any of it up. She stealthily crept up to the room that Ranger disappeared in. She peaked around the corner and saw him standing over a very large bomb. Thinking back, she did wonder why he always went to that room. Now it made perfect sense, even though he had her, he still needed to finish the bomb. And by the looks of it, it was just finished. She saw a time set, she had ten minutes to find a way to disable it. She raised her gun and charged in. _

"_Ranger, drop your gun." She told him firmly, trying to forget the pain in her back, ribs, and abdomen._

_He freezes, surprised that she is free. "How did you…"_

"_Drop. Your. Gun." Emily told him again, slowly. He spun around and she shot him. It hit him somewhere in the right shoulder and he fell back. _

"_It is going to blow, and you can't get away fast enough to save yourself or any of them now." He told her matter-of-factly. Emily grabbed the handcuffs in her pocket and slapped them on his hands. Then she ran over to the bomb, after removing his gun of course._

"_What the hell? I can't stop this." Then she thought of someone who might be able to. She went back to Ranger who was leaning heavily on a wall, fighting unconsciousness, and took her cell phone out of his pocket. Going to speed dial 4 she heard the phone ring._

"_Raider, Hey Prentiss! You okay? Leo is outside." Raider said on the other line, completely oblivious to the danger._

"_There is a bomb." She told him, looking back at the timer it said 3 minutes were left. "We have 2:50 minutes left."_

"_Shit… Flint?" Raider asked hopefully. After a couple seconds of silence, he understood. He felt sorrow, but couldn't let Emily die. "What kind of bomb? Bought from where?"_

"_Home made." Emily told him._

"_I'm sorry but I can't do anything if I don't know what kind of bomb it is." Raider said desperately. _

_Emily looked around and noticed she was in the control room. Getting an idea, she decided to get a little more info._

"_Will closing all the doors contain the explosion?" She asked hurriedly. _

"_Possibly. I called the Agents outside, they should be running for the hills by now. Leo isn't leaving yet." Raider added._

"_Can you tell me how to use the computerized lock down system in here?" Emily figured that this could just work._

"_Sure. What is it?" He asked in the same urgent voice Emily was giving him._

"_SystoLock 399. Got it?" _

"_Yup. Okay is there a blue button?" _

_Emily was standing in front of the panel and saw the button._

"_Yeah."_

"_Press it. Then punch in 34437. Okay." Raider was talking like he was giving directions to a four year old._

_Emily punched in the code and it started blinking. _

"_Done. It is blinking. Did I do it wrong…"_

"_Blue button 3 times fast." Raider interrupted. Emily quickly obeyed._

_Then she heard the doors begin to close. Looking around she saw Ranger stir and try to find his gun. Emily saw the door to the main room closing as well, she dropped the phone and grabbed Ranger's bad shoulder, then dragged him out just before it closed. Just before the door closed she saw the timer… 00:21 seconds. Ranger was crying out in pain, and she wasn't sure why she was saving him._

_Finding the manhole, she ripped the cover off hastily and pushed Ranger down. She heard him scream in agony, she didn't feel sorry at all. As she heard a faint beeping sound, she jumped in the dark hole. _

_She hit the ground hard and she didn't know if she was awake or knocked out, everything was black. Then the world lit up and the loudest sound she ever heard, echoed around the dark hole. The world went silent and dark at the same time. She felt pain as heavy rough rocks/rubble covered her body._

Emily shot out of her nightmare. She had recalled the previous game with such vividness; it felt like she was doing it all over again. Her body hurt, but her mind was suffering the effects of not only the current situation, but also the painful memory of her past mistakes.

Emily looked up as she heard feet. Letting herself gain some composure, she closed her eyes and took a deep, agonizing breath. She remembered how much she hated her job after Flint died, if anything happens to one of her team now… She just doesn't know.

"I told them our terms." Ranger said.

"What did you tell them?" She growled fiercely.

"All or Nothing."

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**That was chapter 8! YAY!!! I have to say that this was my hardest chapter. I didn't have writers block, I had exhaustion block. I just got done wiht my winter sport and a week before my sping one starts, so I thought it would be good to catch up on some much needed sleep. Sorry if I kept you waiting a while, but I really needed that little vacation from too much work (even though I am exercising for 2 hours after school, doing about 3 hours of homework, then pitching for 1 1/2 hours) it was a great break to just slack off a little once in a while. But now I'm ready to buckle down again and suffer my all to familiar Sleep Deprivation syptoms YAY!!! Thanks for all the support and don't forget to review!!! **

**-Jonezie**

**P.S.- You know that I don't own Criminal Minds. Why do you ask? Really? **

**Also these aren't facts about the government, just a fictional story... I don't want any conspiracy theories to start popping up. Thank you!**


	9. Crazy is Contagious

**Sorry I've been lazy. No i'm joking, I got a concussion and have been have terrible writer's block. I know where the story is going, I just am having trouble getting there. Well I hope you like this chapter. The next one is going to be the beginning of the "possible" escape... you never know... I havn't decided what will happen in the end... Review and give me some encouragement to get rid of this terrible writer's block... message me... repeat reviews... ANYTHING!!!  
-Jonezie**

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Emily was confused when Ranger left the room in haste. He seemed to becoming more and more sick. His games had become the only thing he looked forward to, watching Emily tell him which one to kill had caused him a strange acceleration. She noticed that his voice had begun to get a higher pitch when he would ask her who would be the next victim, and his eyes danced with a strange excitement.

He was turning into a psycho. His previous morals of right and wrong had become twisted. When he was on his 5th set of kids, he was so excited that he locked the door and wanted to see the kid cry and beg. Emily had had enough of his taunts. It was killing her inside. Not only was he becoming a complete maniac, but she was drifting off into a haze.

After about a week, and 9 sets of unexpecting children, she had stopped thinking of a way to escape. All she could think of was to find some way to save the kids. She was breaking, piece by piece, but no matter how far gone she really was, she never showed any of it to him. When he would be flaunting his success at not being caught, she would make a snide remark to tear him down, thus causing him to become angry and take out his rage on her. She never screamed or begged for him to stop; she stayed completely silent, except when she would taunt him and make him embarrassed. She would say things like "I've seen drunk girls hit harder than you," or "Looks like someone has a little too much testosterone at one time?"

They continued to try and crack the other. He was becoming unbelievably careless and she was getting more and more distant. On the tenth day he had her, he did something that told her just how far into 'crazy land' he really was. He bought a cake and had "Happy 10 Day Anniversary" put on it. She was confused by his childish action.

"Well, look at what happened; this is our tenth uninterrupted day together. I have a special set of kids that I want you to choose from. They are really sweet kids; sisters and very virtuous. Ah how I will enjoy seeing YOU be the one that breaks their little innocent hearts." He said as he stared off at the dismal wall in imagination of the upcoming event.

"I should have let you die." Emily said under her breath. She was thinking of the warehouse and how she saved him after he was the one who did that in the first place.

"Looks like you always make a wrong decision, hmmm?" He questioned both hands on the arms of the chair. He smiled at her. The table that was behind the chair had been adapted with a paper cutter. He used it as a scare tactic. It was long and had full range of motion. Sometimes he left it all the way open to where it hung down the table, blade facing Emily's back. At first she was nervous about it, but soon it just became part of a twisted routine they had.

"I can honestly say that if given the opportunity, I would have left you there." This time she glared at him defiantly.

"Now you are showing just how heartless I knew you were." He seemed proud of himself. As he stood up straight and began to leave the room, she could see a smile curl up his lips.

"Leo, I notified the Turner family. Damn it! Why can't we find him?" Morgan growled in frustration. It had been about a week and they still hadn't found Emily. Plus there were 9 families that they had to tell their daughter was dead, and 9 children that were probably forever scarred by the event, that they must questioned.

The two teams had begun to get more comfortable around each other and had even come to an agreement to share the evidence. By this time they had all the evidence they could ever need to convict Ranger, they just didn't know where to find him. It seemed like every time they predicted him to be in one area, he was way across town. The kids they interviewed hadn't helped much, but that was expected. By the sounds of it, Ranger took them and immediately had them go into a room with Prentiss, who had to choose who lived and who died. Then Ranger took the one that lived, and dropped her off in town.

"Good. Did Garcia have any luck with that license plate?" Leo was equally frustrated but had an ability to keep his cool in front of people.

Ring…Ring…Ring…

"Hey Garcia, you're on speaker." Morgan told her.

"Good. I don't want my Man Candy and Big Lion to be fighting over the phone." She giggled. Leo still wasn't use to her teasing, and cleared his throat embarrassedly. "Oh don't worry My Lion, I found something for you. That license plate belongs to a Ryan Ranger. There isn't a home address…"

"We know that…" Leo cut in but was cut off equally quickly.

"BUT there was another address in a small town P.O. Box." She told him sternly. Garcia and Scarlet were bonding very well, since both considered themselves as kind of 'mothers' of the team.

"And that could help us find where he lives." Leo inquired. Morgan almost wanted to tell him no dah, but figured it wouldn't be appropriate.

"There you go my Cub. Thinking outside the box and everything." She teased him. In response, he mumbled something like whatever.

"Where is it?" He asked now anxious.

"I'm sending the address to all of your phones. Garcia out." She told them, and with a second of silence both Morgan and Leo's phone made a beeping sound that told them there was a message.

"I'll tell Hotch and JJ." Morgan said. "We can meet them there."

"No. Twitch and Raider will come. It doesn't look like we will be coming back before we find his house. I don't want anyone with too much baggage out in the field." Leo told him. Morgan got angry, Hotch and JJ were great, they didn't have any "baggage."

"What the hell do you mean by "baggage"?" Morgan demanded as he grabbed Leo's shirt.

"They have families, people who will miss them greatly if this gets ugly. And it will get ugly." Leo told him calmly. Then Leo walked out.

Morgan just stood in the conference room they were in, shaking his head.

"You know Leo, you aren't nearly as badass as you lead people on to thinking." Morgan said to himself, smiling at the man's rough, but compassionate character.

Emily could hear Ranger walking down the stairs. She also heard little footsteps behind him. Looking around best that she could, she was now alert. She did a hard shake and heard to her dismay, a small crack in the wood. She stood still and waited for him to come into her line of sight.

"So here are your new little friends. I'm going to let you get to know them and be back in a few hours Agent Prentiss. Have fun." He merrily threw over his shoulder.

Two girls with blonde hair and blue eyes walked into Emily's view. She saw a little bit of JJ in them and she felt instantly overly protective of them. The younger one was nervous and obviously afraid, while the older girl was bolder and didn't openly portray fear, but Emily could see it in her eyes.

"Hi there, my name is Emily Prentiss. You can call me Emily or Em if you want." Emily didn't know what made her so optimistic about these kids, but she knew she was either going to save them, or die trying.

"I'm Josephine, but you can call me Jo." The older one told her proudly. The younger girl was hiding behind Jo's leg.

"My name is Lily. Awre you going to swave us?" The younger girl asked, she still had that baby voice that people found adorable.

"I promise, I will save you and get you home safely. No matter what." Emily told them earnestly. The older girl looked doubtful, but Lily's face looked cheerful.

"You pwinky pwaomise?" She asked holding her pinky finger up to Emily's hand.

"Yup. I "pwinky pwaomise"." Emily told her, imitating her. She laughed and came out from behind her sister.

"Youwre fwunny." Lily giggled. Jo smiled and sat on the floor next to Emily, leaning against Emily's legs.

"Well I can't say I've heard that in a while." Emily joked with the young girl. Jo laughed as she was the only one who caught the meaning. Emily was surprised at how mature Jo was for her age. "Hey Jo, how old are you?"

"I'm eight, and Lily is four. She is having a birthday party next week. I told her that I wouldn't let her miss it." Jo said, having the same vow as Emily to protect Lily.

"Trust me Jo, I'll make sure you both get to eat that yummy cake I'm sure that's going to be there." Emily hinted that she would do whatever it took to get them out alive.

"I trust you with my life," Jo said somberly. "But I don't trust just anyone with my sister." She had a serious tone in her voice that Emily knew she must use when people would be stupid enough to bully or tease Lily. Emily chuckled a little bit.

"That is a good quality Jo… And I have a plan on how to get you guys out. Remember, I always keep a promise." Emily saw Lily's eyes light up. "Especially a pinky promise." Emily winked at Lily and Lily sat between Emily's legs and Jo. Jo slung an arm around her and rocked her gently.

"Whatever it is. I'll do anything to protect her." She said into the dead air. Emily couldn't agree more.

* * *

**That is chapter 9 for you. Yup... Next chapter is going to get heated. I hope you like the little Garcia and Leo flirting I have going on in there... If you don't tell me. I think I might add a little side story with them so it isn't too suspencful... comic relief and all. Okay review, message, review alot, just help me with my writer's block PLEAZE!!!**

**I don't own criminal minds**

**-Jonezie**


	10. Escaping Nightmares

**Sorry about the recently slow updates. I can't say that I haven't been busy. I actually have been having a strangely clutzy week. I managed to burn my eye with steaming sweet and sour sauce, then tumble down the stairs (p.s. never go up stairs with hot food. not good idea) and just laid on the floor for a while. Okay now back to important matters, Chapter 10 is now up for reading and of course REVIEWING!!!! I know for sure that there are going to be at least 2 more chapters. Don't cry... They will be really really good... I promise to not make you all wait so long also. If you like, dislike, want to comment, etc. then leave me a REVIEW!!! That keeps me updating more quickly too! I don't own Criminal Minds.  
-Jonezie**

* * *

Emily didn't sleep. Jo and Lily had fallen asleep a few hours from what Emily could tell, but she had no way of knowing for sure. She sat there, in the dark, staring at the same wall she did from the first moment she got there. The girls at her feet were quiet sleepers, Lily would mumble little things about a princess and things about a tea party from time to time, but other than that it was silent. In the silence, Emily began to see her nightmares walk amongst her. She knew that she probably had broken ribs and etc. but she figured that the images of bodies of the kids, agents, everyone were just from sleep deprivation. She saw the same man that had begged her for his life, standing in front of her. He was on his knees looking just like he did before he died.

In the quiet, fear gripped her like an iron claw. She felt as though it tore her apart from the inside. She was aware that Ranger had been leaving for longer periods of time, but not usually when there were kids left there. Running over the plan she had in her mind over and over again, until she was confident enough to believe she could just go through it entirely on memorization, and then she started to drift. Her head kept lazily rolling side to side, eyes half closed, body completely exhausted, she knew she needed sleep.

Loud clanking sounds started descending the stairs. After all this time she had memorized the sound, footsteps. More specifically they were Ranger's footsteps. As he came down the 23 step spiraled staircase, which she had also memorized, the girls began to stir. Jo woke up fist and started to shake Lily awake.

"Lily… Lily get up. Shhh… You have to be quiet, okay?" Jo asked the drowsy girl gently. Emily smiled at their interaction. Jo was formal and a private person with everyone except her sister. Emily realized that with all her years of profiling, she probably knew more about the kids than they ever would.

"I'm thwirsty." Lily said as she rubbed her eyes. She looked so innocent and peaceful, it broke Emily's already shattered heart.

"Hello ladies. It looks like you all had a nice nap." Ranger said to them, surprisingly cheerful. "Not you Agent Prentiss, you look exhausted. I wonder why?"

"Oh no, I'm just great. Never been better." Emily said to him in mock happiness. He stiffened up and narrowed his eyes at her. "Let the girls go Ranger." She demanded more than requested.

"Sorry, no can do. They are just too damn perfect. I am going to let you have a little longer with them though. I need to run some errands so play nice." He chuckled to her then realized that these kids were surprisingly calm. "Maybe you two would like a little lockdown yourselves."

Ranger grabbed some more rope from the table right behind Emily and cut it with the giant paper cutting blade attached to it. Then he tied them to a leg of the table. Each had one hand tied to the leg, Lily whimpered as he tightened her wrist.

"It hwurts." She whined to Jo.

"Shhh…" Jo whispered. Ranger growled something like not knowing real pain, and then walked back up the stairs. He did exactly what Emily knew he would, he left the blade hung over the table. It was set up to where the cutting edge faced her left shoulder. It was long about 3 feet long and pivoted at the edge of the table. Emily remembered that it was what teachers used to cut paper in straight lines with.

"What are we going to do?" Jo asked Emily.

"Remember when I said that I had a plan to get you guys outta' here?" Emily asked, unable to face the girl.

"Yeah…" Jo told her unsurely.

"Well close your eyes. Here it goes."

* * *

"Agent Heart, how may I help you?" The mail clerk asked Leo after he showed his badge. Morgan was next to him and was looking for the P.O. Box of Ranger's. Leo stared the mail clerk down. In return, the mail clerk physically flinched.

"I'm looking for this man." Leo showed him the picture of Ranger. "Have you seen him in this area at all?"

"Well I'll be damn…" The clerk said, adjusting his glasses to get a better look of the picture. "If it isn't Hector. He got a P.O. Box for his brother… er… Ryan I think. But Hector is the only one who comes to pick up the mail, says his brother is sick and all."

"Who is this picture of? Hector? Or… Ryan?" Leo asked hesitantly.

"Hector of course. I ain't never seen that Ryan fello." The clerk confirmed. Leo walked up to Morgan and made sure to whisper.

"His alias is Hector. We need to find out where he lives. Call Garcia for me." Leo told him.

"But she loves it when you call her. I think she has a crush on you." Morgan smirked at Leo's burning face. Leo could stare down the barrel of a .20 shotgun, but dating wasn't his forte.

"You're ridiculous. Just call her, will you." Leo grumbled and stalked off to the clerk once again.

* * *

"Emily what are you going to do?" Jo asked worriedly.

"Just close Lily and your eyes okay." Emily assured her. Then Emily started to rock the chair back and forth. She had loosened the brackets a little while struggling before; she hoped she could break them. She built up a lot of energy and…

CRACK

The legs to the chair broke straight off. Splinters went everywhere. Lily's eyes were covered, but Jo had to see what Emily was thinking.

Emily's chair fell back right where she wanted it. The arm to the left side of the chair was broken. With this freed, she could know untie herself with the other hand. As she was untying, she ignored the pain of the blade in her left shoulder. The drawback of her plan was, it required her to purposely stab herself in the back.

"Emily!" Jo half shouted, half whispered; not wanting to startle Lily, but worried sick about Emily.

"It… It's okay." Emily said behind gritted teeth. As she finished untying her legs, she gingerly removed her shoulder from the blade. Blood was running down her back and she knew that she wouldn't have a lot of time, between blood loss and Ranger; she was on the losing team.

"Are you sure?" Jo questioned.

"Yes. Now here." Emily told her as she untied both Jo's and Lily's wrists. "There you go. Okay follow me." Emily led them out of the room. She found the stairs easily enough. Quietly she walked up them; no clanking sound erupted from the metal. Then she cracked open the door. "Stay here for a second." Emily whispered.

Jo nodded.

Emily walked into the bright light of a kitchen. She felt disoriented by the light and swayed to the side, immediately bumping into several pans. She did a quick walk through of the house and saw that his car wasn't in the driveway. She walked back to the girls.

"Coast is clear. Let's…" Emily froze as she saw a car drive into the driveway.

* * *

"Leo over here." Morgan waved Leo over towards the exit of the post office. Leo walked over.

"Yeah? What'd she find?" He asked slightly nervous.

"Hector, supposedly Hector I should clarify, has a house about 10 minutes from here." Morgan filled him in.

"Good. I'll call Raider and Twitch to head straight there." Leo started to walk away when he suddenly felt Morgan grab his shoulder. He turned back around. "Can I help you?"

"We are going to find her alive, right?" Morgan asked, his eyes pleading for a positive reply.

"Do you really think she even wants to live through this?" Leo asked. Morgan raised a questioning brow. "All I mean is, she might not want to move on. We can't possibly imagine what she has seen, gone through. How are we so sure she isn't just tired of it all?"

"Because she isn't like that." Morgan countered. The Emily he knew would never just lie down and die.

"Isn't she? She left the IGU because she was tired. Hell I'm tired. I don't know if I can do this anymore and she has seen a hell of a lot more than I have." With that Leo left Morgan and headed toward the car. He didn't know what they were going to find, but they were going to save the kids. It would be what Emily would want.

* * *

"Jo, take Lily and hide in the closet in the living room to the right." Emily shooed her in the direction hastily. "Whatever you do, be silent. I'll take care of him."

Jo's wide eyes seemed to process what was going on in an instant. She had dragged her sister into the closet and closed it before any childish protests could begin.

Emily prepared herself for the encounter that was bound to happen. This would settle everything. Here and now… She couldn't help wondering if her team would ever find her. They were her only family, mother being the political woman who after a brief understanding cut herself off from Emily forever. The only thing Emily ever knew about her father was that she never wanted to be like him. She prepared herself and found a pathetic kitchen knife to use in self defense. The beginning… or the end.

* * *

**At least 2 chapters to go! That was this chapter and I will tell you the name of Chapter 11. It is called Showdown. I'm sure that if you use your imagination, you'll get the meaning. Who will win? And remember that I haven't totally decided so it could go either way. As always I am impressed if you take the time to read my full author's note. Remember to REVIEW and tell me to stop being a total idot in my author's notes. I always have to let people know that i'm a total clutz before hand... you know... so they don't hand be anything that isn't wrapped in 10 coats of bubble wrap with a lable on it tell me that i can't sue them for hurting myself by accident with their item! Well here we go for the "beginning of the end!!!"**

**-Jonezie**


	11. Showdown

**Sadly we are nearing the end... Not quiet yet though. There will for sure be another chapter after this. I know this chapter is going to make some of you overly stress from the suspense... I'm sorry but isn't that part of the fun. I guess you will find out my decision about the end in the next chapter. I'm sure that you will all very much enjoy this chapter. This has been really fun to write. I also want you all to take notice in the special care I took in always making Ranger address Emily as Agent Prentiss, since Leo scared him into the habit sooo badly, I figured I should add that little detail as well. Hope you love this chapter and REVIEW!!! We are nearing the end and I really wanted a lot of REVIEWS!!! I know a lot of you read, plz... GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK!!! Thank you very much...  
-Jonezie**

* * *

In all the drama and tension in the air, the world seemed to go by in slow motion. She stiffly walked over to hide behind the kitchen wall. There she would lay in wait for him to walk into the kitchen, after that she planned to walk up behind him and stab him in the spine. If all went perfect, she wouldn't have to stay there for longer than five minutes. The only problem was… Nothing about this situation was ever perfect, so why would that change?

Emily lent heavily on the wall behind her, trying to control her breathing. Not only was her heart pumping blood out of her body, desperately attempting to meet the body's basic blood need, but it was also portraying her true fear about the current predicament. She had always compartmentalized everything, except for Ranger. His sick attempts at first revenge and then psychotic rampage were all set off because of her. Years of hiding this from her team and now for it to be blown open was very upsetting. If she made it out, she didn't know how they would ever be able to look at her the same.

After that day, she would look in the mirror and see the same monster that she worked so hard to catch. She always wondered what the difference was, and when it all came down to it… she realized that it only mattered who you killed to determine if you were the bad guy or good guy. It took her a long time to figure that out, but the line always looked so blurred to her. Not that she wanted to murder, she hated it… it made her stomach scream in agony, but working with the IGU it was her job to go what some people called "too far."

Shaking herself back to reality, she heard the front door creak open. She could tell that he was angry for some reason, hearing him mumble curse words under his breath. She could also tell that his movements were rather curt and enraged. She heard the door slam loudly and began to wonder what could have put him in such an awful mood, he usually only acted that way after they had a little discussion. Emily pressed herself against the wall, making no sound at all, just waiting like a panther.

As Ranger was about to walk into the kitchen, there was squeaking wood in the living room. _Damn!_ Emily thought. She heard him stop walking and shift from one heavy boot to the next. Then she looked at the basement, the door wasn't latched totally closed. Emily knew that he knew they were out by now. She continued to stay still, hoping he would still check the basement out. No dice. He started walking to the living room; he was using a strange stealth that he hadn't shown before. He was nearly silent, except for a low growl from his throat.

Emily quit thinking and went into protecting mode. Taking her only defense, besides her fists, she tossed the knife onto the kitchen tile across the room. It made a loud clattering noise as it struck the tile. She heard him stop growling and chuckle.

"The back door is locked Agent Prentiss. I'm guessing the floor board was a distraction. Very nicely done. Too bad you messed up." He calmly strutted into the kitchen.

As he rounded the wall, she knew he was waiting for her. Instead of continuing straight towards the noise, he turned sharply and swung at her his large dagger. It was the same one that killed Flint all those years ago. She dodged barely, yelping as her ribs restricted a lot of movement.

On seeing the knife, anger bubbled up inside of her. She no longer felt any pain from her body, for his sob story, she almost felt inhuman as she was consumed with rage.

"Bastard." She shouted at him as she kneed his stomach. He grunted and tried to slice at her, but she slapped the knife right out of his hand. He was in a little shock until she punched him hard in the nose. She heard it crack, smiling because that meant it was definitely broken. The dagger skittered on the dining table. It looked rather nice until Emily lunged for the knife.

Ranger made a quick recovery; he pushed Emily off the table in attempts to stop her from reaching he knife. Soon he too fell over the table and Emily and him were crawling across the floor trying to reach the sharpened blade. Then Ranger thought to himself on how silly it was for them to be fighting over a little dagger.

He stood up and smiled as Emily finally had the dagger in her right hand. He noticed that there was blood everywhere and knew that it wasn't from himself.

"You look rather tired. Losing your touch?" He challenged cockily. Emily stood there confused, she had the dagger.

"You're the one who gave up." She growled, the blade shook in her hand. She wasn't afraid to use it; no… the blood loss was catching up fast. They were standing about four feet apart. Close enough for her to use the dagger, but far enough for Ranger to make his move.

"No… I didn't." He smirked wickedly. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to bring a knife to a gun fight?" He chuckled at the joke as he pulled out HER weapon. He held it up at her chest. If he was going to have to finally kill her, he was going to take his time.

* * *

"How far are we Morgan?" Leo asked as he drove way faster than the speed limit. They left what seemed to be forever ago.

"We should only have about five minutes left. Take 30th down 6 blocks then turn right. It should be the only house on that road." Morgan told him, while looking at the directions Garcia sent him on his phone.

Leo's phone went off. "Morgan answer this." Leo mumbled as he literally tossed his phone at Morgan. Morgan was appalled at the fact that Leo was willing to do that with the windows open.

"Whatever…" Morgan grumbled to himself. Clicking the touch button that showed talk, he answered. "It's Morgan. Leo's driving."

"Morgan *pant* we've got a BIG problem. *pant pant* The mail carrier out front told us that "Hector" just stopped by his truck…" Raider spoke quickly and breathlessly into the phone. "He said that it was about 20 minutes ago. He was *gasp* tipped off you were there."

"Shit… That means that he is already at the house." Morgan shouted, hitting the dashboard. Leo heard the conversation since it was on speaker.

"Raider, I need you to get an ambulance at the address and police there immediately. Whatever is going down, it is happening right now." Leo said loudly enough that the phone picked up his voice.

"Sure boss." Raider said, finally caught up on his breath. Then he hung up.

"Prentiss, you just have to make sure that he loses." Leo whispered, but Morgan heard him.

* * *

"Funny isn't it? Both of our fates are going to be decided in just one action." Ranger tilted his head, looking more tired than Emily had ever seen him.

"Yeah… And to think, we know each other better than anyone." Emily said more to herself. But it still caught his attention. He looked deeply into her eyes.

"I used to blame you for my daughters' deaths. But I don't anymore…" He was lost in his own realization. "This game only occurred because you didn't stop me."

"What do you mean?" This completely lost her. She always thought that that was the reason he hated her so thoroughly.

"You saved me from the explosion. I should have died, but you just couldn't let that happen huh? I had to live in this hell for many more years, just because of your selfish desire to make yourself feel better about getting my sweet girls killed! Now I'm going to kill you and then those little girls." With that said, he pulled the trigger. It was all so slow; she didn't even know what she was doing.

She lunged at him, stabbing him in the stomach. With his free hand he wrapped it around her left shoulder and pulled her into the gun. They were both bleeding heavily. Emily had a gunshot wound in her abdomen somewhere and Ranger had a stab wound near his lung.

With that done, they both went all out. He emptied out the magazine in her body, six shots to be exact, two were in her abdomen, one managed to hit her right shoulder, another was her right arm, and one last one was in her leg. His last shot hit the ground because of him being so distracted with his own pain. Emily was stabbing his chest over and over.

Ranger dropped the gun to the floor and staggered back a few steps, knife sticking out of his left side. He fell backwards and lay facing up towards the ceiling. Emily stood tall, but as soon as she saw him fall, her own body gave out from overwhelming pain. She heard Ranger coughing up blood; she herself was doing the same but not as bad. She couldn't see him anymore, since she was staring at the ceiling too.

"Fuck… *cough* It HURTS!!!" Ranger yelled as best he could. He struggled to get up but fell back down.

"No dip Sherlock. Find that out all on your *cough* own?" Emily said extremely sarcastic. She applied pressure to the shot in her leg and shoulder, but didn't have the strength to put too much pressure on them. She didn't really think it mattered.

"I'm afraid to… to die." He admitted, he always thought that he would die quickly, not painfully. "Damnit… Looks like you..." Ranger pulls the knife out of his chest and frailly drops it down beside his body. Then he gurgles up blood, must have nicked an artery while he pulled loose the knife. "win…" He said weakly. His voice was fading away.

"Ranger, you deserve this…" She told him, no longer feeling any sympathy for the maniac.

"I guess I'll see you in Hell… Don't keep me waiting…" He smiled to himself. "Together… we'll… p-pla… play." He finished finally fading out of this world.

Emily just looked straight up. She knew that she might not have a choice.

"Ranger, I just might have too." She whispered into the dead air. Her own voice sounding weak…

* * *

**Our time together is nearing an end... As this chapter closes the next will be up shortly. It is going to be called.... Aww I'm sooo NOT giving it away yet. TeHe... Killer cliffhanger I know. Don't hate me though. Okay? Well I hope that you liked it enough to REVIEW but I'm not being too push am I? Hope that this story hasn't disappointed anyone so far. I have always had a story like this buzzing in my head and it is finally giving me some peace to type it down! Well just a little hint also for all you humor fans out there (ironic i'm talking about humor in this nail biting drama huh?) I'm coming up with a new story that is going to be different than I think anyone has written about Criminal Minds (I guess I could be wrong). I don't own Criminal Minds.**

**Sincerely Yours for One of Our Last Times Together on this Story,**

**-Jonezie**

***tear* "Just joking... I don't cry!" :P**


	12. Winners are Just Talented Losers

**All right! Well this is the much anticipated chapter. I want you all to know that I want your reviews on whether or not I add one last chapter to this. Give me reviews because I really enjoy your input. This has a lot of twists to it... So read and REVIEW! I don't own Criminal Minds.**  
**-Jonezie**

* * *

Emily stared at the ceiling; the texture was old and worn. She was tired and felt utterly exhausted. She tried to shift into a more comfortable position, only to feel her body scream in protest. Emily just wanted to give up and fade into the white fuzzy unconsciousness that awaited her. She was about to let go when she heard a distant voice.

"Emily? Emily, it's me." Jo was kneeling next to Emily; her eyes flowed with fear for her new friend. "Can you hear me?"

"Where is your sister?" Emily tried to say with as little strain in her voice as possible. Jo could tell she was in bad shape, Jo had never seen so much blood before.

"I told her to stay in the closest. It got really quiet and I… I just wanted to…" Jo started crying. She was so scared that Emily would be mad at her for getting her into this mess. Jo was surprised when she heard a quiet chuckle.

"It's okay. I'm just tired." Emily attempted to grin, but it turned into a grimace of pain. "Jo, I need you to find a phone and call 911." Emily tried to get the girl back into sorts. There was a sniffling sound to the right of both of them. Lily stood in front of both of them, tears in her own eyes.

"I'm not weaving Emiwly." Lily wailed and ran over to Emily. Prentiss let out a loud "Ooofff" as the girl flopped down on top of her leg. Jo quickly ushered Lily off of the wounded leg.

"Lily, we aren't going to leave." Jo sat next to her sister, both of them were waiting for Emily to just get up and walk them out while holding their hands.

"No. You have to leave." Emily's voice hit an all time low, throbbing expanding and increasing throughout her body. The last thing she saw before the white fuzzy world, was Jo and Lily staring straight at her with pleading eyes.

* * *

"Ranger! Open the door!" Leo yelled once, and then Morgan kicked the door open. Leo took point and started for the living room. Morgan took the study that wrapped around the first floor and opened into the kitchen.

As Leo reached the living room, he saw small bloody footprints. He cautiously went around a corner into the hall, following the mini footsteps. As he reached sight of the kitchen, he saw two little girls huddled around a bloody mess. It took him a few moments to realize that the blood was from a person, Emily to be exact.

"PRENTISS!" Leo yelled and ran to her. The girls backed away a little bit.

"Did you find her?" Morgan shouted from somewhere else in the house.

"Yeah. There are two girls here too." Leo spoke up as he knelt beside his friend; he looked up at the two frightened children. "Hey now," Leo whispered to them. He checked Emily's pulse while never taking his eyes off the girls.

"Who… Are you?" Jo spoke up, Lily huddled behind her big sister. Jo looked like she was ready to punch Leo for touching Emily.

"I'm Agent Heart, an… acquaintance of Emily's." Leo told them, raising his hands in the air to show he wasn't going to do anything to them.

"She pwinky pwomised." Lily whined to Jo. Leo looked between the two girls.

"Derek here is going to take you to some agents that will take you home… Okay?" Leo told them cautiously, he was afraid that he might spook them. He was never very good with kids. There was a moment that none of them moved, and then Jo nodded her approval.

"Leo, is she okay?" Morgan asked as he finished clearing the house and met Leo by Emily's body.

"Derek, just take these young ladies outside." Leo told him slightly sterner than he was trying to. Morgan turned to the girls for the first time, his face turned into a fake comforting smile.

"Okay kids, I'm Derek. Let's get you guys home." Morgan said to them as he picked Lily up and reached for Jo's hand. Jo pulled her hand back and sat next to Emily.

"Take my sister out… I need to stay with Emily." Jo struggled to say. Even though she just met Emily, she knew that Emily did a lot to protect them. "I owe her that."

"No. Prentiss wouldn't want that. She wants you to go outside and to go see your family." Leo said in a scratchy voice. He seemed disturbed by the girls comment. "She would kill me if I let you stay."

Morgan looked at him, seeing a pained expression cross his face. Then he looked at Emily and saw how badly she was injured.

"Okay, let's go." Morgan rushed the girls into the living room and out of the house. He knew the ambulance would be there any minute and hoped they would get there in time. After he got the two frightened kids out of the gory house he looked them over.

"Are you two hurt at all?" He asked, voice full of concern.

"My wist hwurts." Lily whimpered, she had rope burns on her wrists from being tied up. Morgan looked them over.

"It's okay Lily, they will be all fixed up in no time." Derek told her in his most cheerful voice he could muster up. He looked at Jo.

Jo was staring at the house, the tears she was holding in finally slid down her delicate cheeks. Morgan felt like beating Ranger to death, but then remembered that Emily already beat him to it. Literally.

"She will be okay." Morgan told Jo with more confidence in his voice than he actually had. He knew the wounds were horrific.

* * *

Leo sat beside Emily, putting pressure on some of the wounds. He looked over at Ranger, who lay dead on the floor. Leo's face turned into a snarl, he actually was baring his teeth at the dead man.

"Leo, I'm not sorry." Emily whispered to him weakly. Leo's head snapped down to look at the, presumed unconscious, agent.

"What do you mean?" His own voice was more of a growl. He knew their relationship was different.

"About leaving… I… I just couldn't do it anymore." Emily mumbled weakly, her eyes were still closed. This made Leo scoff and shake his head.

"I'm not doing this out of friendship." He defended, in truth they hadn't even looked in the same direction as each other since Emily decided to leave. "I'm doing it out of respect. You were still the best, and I know why you told them about me." He said to her in a softer voice.

"Yeah…" Emily sounded like she was on cloud 9. "No matter what ever happens, we promised to make sure that if anything were to happen to one of us, the other would carry out their wishes." Emily reminded him of their pact.

Leo heard the EMTs come in the house. Before they got in the living room Leo leant in and whispered into Emily's ear. "We aren't friends." He smiled a little at her.

"No… We aren't…" She told him and smiled herself.

"Sir, I need to ask you to stand back." An EMT, with the name tag Chris on it, told him.

Leo stood back and watched them load Emily up on the stretcher. Leo knew her pulse was slowing and she probably wouldn't make it. He laughed when he remembered how she always told him it was "just a scratch" whenever she was shot. This time though, she couldn't lie. Deep down, Leo knew that that fact scared him, but after everything he had been through throughout his career, he knew that he would probably have to let go of her. They were friends for so long that both were on the understanding that even after their friendship was terminated; it would always be there in some form.

"Sir, we are taking her to Washington Hospital." Chris told him as they started carrying her out. Leo nodded to him. "Are you coming?"

"No…" Just as Leo told the young EMT, JJ walked in. She walked with quick, hasty strides. As soon as she saw Leo and Emily, she froze. JJ felt fear wash through her entire body; Emily, her long time friend, was on a stretcher being carried out of the house.

"Is she okay?" JJ asked urgently. She hadn't seen Morgan since the other ambulance was checking the kids out.

"It is too early to tell…" Chris told her honestly. "We have to go." And with that, the young man was outside the house and jumping inside the ambulance.

"Go." Leo told JJ. JJ looked at him in shock. The whole team knew the Emily and Leo meant a lot to each other, they just didn't know how they fit together.

"No you should really be the one to…"

"We haven't spoken since the day she told me she was quitting!" Leo growled at JJ fiercely. "She didn't tell you about me so I could help you solve this case, don't you realize that? She did it so I could protect you. Ever since the start, I had Raider hack into Garcia's computers and protect your information with his own firewalls. I had Twitch set up protective detail on your houses and loved ones. I even had Scarlet keeping a close eye on you guys directly. I wasn't here to catch him; I was here to save all of you!" JJ took a step back. The new information hit her like a sack of bricks. She dumbly nodded and jogged out to the ambulance.

"Morgan, tell Hotch I'm riding with Emily!" JJ shouted as she hopped in next to Chris. The EMTs were frantically trying to stop the bleeding.

"Agent! Can you hold this down?" Chris asked JJ to hold down a bandage on Emily's arm.

"Yeah." JJ told him and pressed down on the wound.

"Owww…" Emily moaned. JJ looked at her sternly.

"That's what you get for worrying more about us than yourself." JJ told her in a motherly lecturing voice. Emily gave out a breathless chuckle.

"That... bastard... told you..." Emily drifted into consciousness again. Then her eyes started to roll back into her head and a beeping sound rang through the ambulance.

"Shit… What's going on?" JJ asked Chris frantically.

"She is flat-lining." Chris told her. "Agent Prentiss, can you hear me?" He asked, then he started using the portable shocky things. "Damn… Emily you have a lot of people that want to see you alive." He tried to coax her.

"How long until we reach the hospital?" JJ asked/ yelled at the driver.

"We're here ma'am. I just radioed in that she started flat-lining." The driver calmly told her.

The back doors to the ambulance opened up and light burst into the small space. JJ heard, what seemed like the best thing in the world, she heard a steady beeping sound. She turned to Chris, who had a huge grin on his face.

"Apparently she isn't done yet." He told JJ then turned to the doctors and nurses that opened the door. "Female. 5 shots, she just flat-lined but I got her stable. She has been badly beaten." He said in a technical voice.

"Okay. Thank you. We got it from here." A short woman told him. Looking at JJ she said, "Ma'am, one of the nurses will escort you to the waiting room. We'll do our best, I promise." She gave JJ a reassuring smile.

"Thanks…" JJ mumbled. She was totally drained; she started to wonder how Emily could have possibly gone so long without going insane. JJ started to follow a nurse, who led her down a hall by the hand, much like a mother would a frightened child.

"Okay, why don't you go get cleaned up Sweety." The nurse told JJ as she brought her to a restroom. "Then I'll take you to the waiting room. JJ nodded and looked in the mirror. She was covered in blood, and for the first time, it wasn't her own. She started to wash her hands, then her face, and then she wiped away the blood on her arms.

"Are you done, Sweetheart?" The nurse asked gently. Again, JJ simply nodded and followed the nurse. The nurse led her to the waiting room and sat her down in a soft chair. "Do you need anything?"

"No… Thank you…" JJ stated in her political voice, portraying little emotion. The nurse gave up and walked away. JJ appreciated the silence, then she reached into her pocket and started to call the team.

* * *

_Emily looked around. She was on a bus. It seemed like a school bus, but it was totally empty. She looked around, but couldn't see anyone. Then she sat up in the seat and looked out the window. The bus was moving… Outside the window was cornfield after cornfield. It looked so peaceful. She smiled to herself, excited about where she would get off. It was too peaceful to pass up…_

_She was startled when she heard a soft snicker next to her. She drifted her gaze over to the seat across from hers. She saw guy stretched out, feet resting up on the seat, hands behind his head, and he looked extremely relaxed. Her eyes got wide._

"_What's wrong? Don't remember me?" The guys asked playfully._

"_Flint? But… Oh…" She said as she understood what was going on._

"_Hey. You ain't dead yet. You have a choice." He told her, still relaxed in the seat._

"_How could I even go back…?" Emily asked him. Flint smiled at her._

"_Simple. First you fight like hell and recognize that you mean a lot to a LOT of people. Next you fight like hell to make sure the dark thoughts stay away." He told her matter-of-factly. _

_Emily felt the bus pull up to a stop. She looked back out the window and saw a long driveway. At the end, there was a comfortable house with a tire swing in the front yard. The grass was so green and lush. She smiled and wished she could go check it out._

"_This is my stop." Flint told her and stood up and stretched. He started toward the front of the bus and when he reached the steps he looked over at her. "I can't stop you if you want off." And with that, he jumped off the bus and ran down the drive way like a little kid. She saw him run up to a dark haired teenage and hug her. Then she remembered that Flint had a sister that died from a mugging. She stood up herself._

"_You going or staying?" A voice asked her from the front of the bus. A man that wasn't there before sat in the driver's seat. He had a blue ball cap on and his voice was old and cracking._

"_I'm…" Emily saw Flint look back at the bus and shake his head. She remembered the smile he gave her right before he died and knew she couldn't let him die in vain. _

"_I'm staying." She told the bus driver and sat back down._

"_You sure? We ain't gonna' turn back, ya know." He told her. She saw Flint smile and wave at her as the bus started to pull out of park._

"_Yeah… I don't know what will happen next. But I know I don't belong here…" She told the driver softly so only she could really hear it. She slouched in the seat and sighed. _

* * *

The same short doctor walked out of the ER doors and to the people clogging up the waiting area. All of them showed up except for Leo. Twitch stood at the back, while Scarlet was up with JJ and Garcia, trying to consol them. Raider was standing beside the women as they continued to cry. Hotch and Rossi were standing and they both looked like they hadn't slept in days. Reid was with Morgan, telling him some comforting statistic. They all stood up when they saw the doctor.

"I'm sorry we were never formally introduced. My name is Dr. Levi. We had to do an emergency surgery and she flat-lined again," Dr. Levi told them. JJ held onto Scarlet like a little kid that just heard her puppy died. "But we got her back. We even managed to repair most of the damage." It will be a while before she can leave the hospital."

"When can we see her?" Hotch asked. Morgan slumped back into his chair, relieved.

"Maybe tomorrow would be better. You all look like you could use some sleep and I'll call you if she wakes up, but she had a lot of pain killers so I don't think that is going to happen." Dr. Levi informed them.

"She is right. Everyone go home and go to sleep." Hotch told his team. Scarlet agreed with him and told Raider and Twitch to head back to their hotel rooms. As everyone dispersed, Garcia looked around the room.

"Where is Leo?" She asked Scarlet. Scarlet knew that Garcia and Leo had a little thing. They both had a crush, but Leo wasn't very good with people and Scarlet was worried he might hurt Garcia.

"He is just tying up loose ends." Scarlet assured the analyst. Garcia went along with the answer, too tired to ask any questions.

* * *

**Okay that was the end... or is it? I just need at least one review to tell me if you want another chapter to tie up the "loose ends" of this story. Hehe, I just used a sentence that I used in the story... You don't care... Okay, so if you want another chapter tell me in a REVIEW or PM, but I would also love to read any reviews you would kindly leave. Also I would like feedback on the story. This could be the end unless someone wants one more chapter...  
-Jonezie**


	13. All Games End

**I totally know that it has been like FOREVER since I've last written. But this is the last chapter and it took time. I'm not saying i've been writing for 2 weeks straight, just saying that I have been really, super busy. This is the last chapter, as I just said, and that means this story is soon to be complete! Pleaze read and review, since well this is it and everything...  
-Jonezie**

* * *

"What the hell?" Emily moaned with her eyes still closed. "What is going on?" She grumbled as light penetrated her eyelids. She slowly opened her eyes and tried to block the sunlight with her hand, but she couldn't move it. There was a pang of agony as she attempted to shift her arm.

"What do you expect is going on?" A gruff voice came from somewhere in the room. She knew who belonged to that rough but warm voice. He walked back over to the window and closed the curtain. "Your friends will be here in another hour or so…" He informed her as he lent against the wall awkwardly.

"Jerk. What? Can't let me sleep off this headache?" Emily joked around as her vision began to clear. "Why are you here Leo?" Her voice took on a more somber tone; she wanted a real answer from him.

"Just thought you should know that I took care of the matters. All of this, Ranger, the kids, everything; it's all taken care of. No one can ever find the connection between you and the case." Leo told her a little more harshly than he meant to. "You know that I can't let this get out right? There are just too many loose ends to allow the public to know." His voice assuaged because he knew that it was always hard for Emily to accept things being kept in the dark.

"You never answered me. Tell me, why you are really here?" She was curious how after everything she did, he would still swing by the hospital.

She studied him more closely now. He looked dead tired, his eyes were bloodshot and his hair was even messier than usual. He let out an exhausted sigh and turned away from her. Emily tried to reposition on the hospital bed, but she still couldn't move. There was a long moment of silence until he turned back around to face her. She could tell that he was only awake because he had years of training and quarts of coffee rushing through his veins, but even that seemed to be failing him at the moment. Sluggishly, he dragged himself to a chair that was across the room from her bed. Leo flopped on the lounging chair, causing it to squeal in protest.

"The last time we spoke," Leo started. He ran a hand through his untamed hair absentmindedly. "Do you remember that night?" He asked, making eye contacted with Emily. He sounded aloof, almost like he was in his own world.

"Of course…" She told him confidently. "Hey, are you drunk?"

"Huh? Oh, right… No, I'm not… Just really tired." He leaned back in the chair, making it slide backwards a little bit.

"What's going on?"

He closed his eyes and seemed to be willing the question away. After what seemed to be several minutes, he shifted again. This time he hung his head and only looked at the shiny grey tiled floor.

"That night I was so mad at you. I shouldn't have been, but every fiber in my body kept telling me that you were just running away from what happened. I wanted to believe that you were a coward…" Leo explained frankly. Lifting his head to look into her eyes he continued, "I didn't understand why you seemed so tired. I had always thought we did the same amount of work… we never did though, did we?"

Emily lay there, frozen in her painful prison. She didn't know what to tell him, she wanted to comfort him and tell him it would be all right, but she couldn't. She had gone down that same road he was on and the only way she recovered was to switch jobs and pretend like nothing ever happened. All Emily ended up doing was staring straight back at him.

"Scarlet told me," Leo chuckled as he thought back to that occasion. "Well, she more of along the lines of beat it into me. You would always stay later than me, finish most of my reports, and your role in the interrogations was far worse than mine…" He trailed off. A piece of him wanted to say he was sorry, wanted to beg her to forgive him, but he couldn't do it.

"What does this have to do with anything?" The memories hurt Emily and she just wanted him to get to the point.

"I'm retiring from the IGU for good. I already have some good candidates that I chose to fill in the empty spots on the team." Leo fidgeted his hands and twiddled his thumbs.

"What are you planning on doing?" Emily asked dumbly. She was in shock at his statement. Never had he even threatened to quit, she always figured he would die as a hero taking out the bad guy and saving everyone.

"I was thinking of doing some traveling, do a little surfing and mountain climbing." He told her, finally beginning to relax. He was happy she didn't freak out and tell him all the reasons why he should stay.

"It sucks doesn't it." She told him flatly.

"What?" He was confused by the random statement.

"The exhaustion, being tired all the time. Maybe you aren't always physically tired, but that mental anguish just never leaves." Emily informed him. Leo nodded. "Did you tell the others?"

"No…"

"And… Don't you think they will kind of notice when you don't show up for about 2 weeks? Eventually I'm sure that even Twitch will catch on." She laughed.

"Argh… I was hoping that they would just kind of forget after awhile." Leo moaned into the dead air.

"Sorry doesn't work that way." She told him finally finding the strength to sit up.

Noticing the wince Emily began to wear while sitting herself up, Leo immediately walked over to her. Concern showing in his eyes, he knelt down next to her bed and pulled something out from underneath. It was a plastic bag and he lifted it about eye level to himself as he stood up. Pulling the contents out, he grinned.

"Bought these for you. Figured that you would have to wear something that was actually comfortable for a while." He smirked and handed her a pair of plaid pajama bottoms and a button up shirt.

"Did you buy this shirt in the guys department?" She asked him skeptically.

"Well dah, how else would I have found a shirt that can be put on while someone is still hooked up to about 2 dozen medications?" He laughed as Emily stuck her tongue out at him.

"And how do you expect me to change into these? Hmm?" Emily questioned him. Leo gave her a dumb look that told her that he never really thought about it. "Thanks for the clothes Leo…" She decided that his effort should be appreciated.

"Well I did bring you something that will make you feel better." A devilish grin crossed his face as he pulled something shiny out of his coat. "How does liquid pain killer sound?" He smirked.

"Why Mr. Heart, aren't you such a sweet boy, but how on earth did you manage to sneak this past the nurses?" She toyed with him.

"Well I hid it in my pants when they frisked me." He stated sarcastically, some color coming back to his personality.

"Humph. Fine then." Emily fake pouted. "Are you going to bring that over here or what?"

Leo handed Emily the flask, and she managed to take a long swig. "Isn't it gre-" They were interrupted by scuffling sounds outside the door.

"Shit!" Emily tossed the open flask to Leo, who skillfully caught it. Closing the top with well practiced precision and speed, he tucked it back into his coat just as the door opened.

"Well if it isn't my Sweet Bear! We were worried sick about you." Garcia scolded as soon as she opened the door. She strutted over to Emily and set the teddy bear, which she had bought at like 2:30 in the morning, on the empty nightstand next to Emily's bed.

"Thanks Garcia, but really, you didn't need to get me anything." Emily told her, slightly embarrassed by the gift.

"Nonsense, anyways I made my Hunk carry the big bear." Just as Garcia told Emily that, Morgan walked into the room trying to cart a stuffed bear that was about as large as him.

"Garcia, where did you even find that?" Emily asked, wide eyed.

"I have my ways…" She trailed off, showing a mischievous smile. Emily looked back over to the door and saw Morgan set the bear down with an exhausted sigh.

"You look a bit winded Morgan. Losing your touch?" Emily challenged playfully. All he did was give her his award winning smile and shake his head in disbelief.

JJ, Hotch, Reid, Rossi, and Scarlet and Raider walked through the door. The once spacious room, was now a lot LESS spacious.

"How are you feeling sweetie?" JJ asked Emily as she set some flowers next to the bedside table.

"Considering I was shot like," Emily pretended to count up the number on her fingers, "Uh… I'm not really sure how many times, but I'm not doing too shabby." She gave JJ her geeky smile.

"Well that's good." JJ smiled back and stepped to the side so Morgan could give Emily a hug.

"Hey kid, we were freaked out last night. Don't ever do that to us again, okay?" Morgan pretty much pleaded. He gave her a light hug, so he wouldn't hurt her.

"I'll do my best, trust me." Emily told him sarcastically.

"Ahem… Um, Emily, er, do the nurses know you're awake?" Reid asked nervously. He wasn't really nervous about Emily, just the whole emotion slash being in a hospital type thing was making him a bit edgy.

"Huh… I don't think they do." With that, Reid scurried out of the room. Emily looked around and noticed that Leo had left sometime in the middle of the commotion.

"Well the boys want to get back soon, so I'm going to have to be quick. You need to stay out of trouble Prentiss. Why is it that every time I turn around, you or Leo are out saving the world? I am going to have grey hair soon and everyone will call me Old Lady instead." Scarlet tried to stay stern, but her voice broke into a much lighter tone. She smiled at the way Emily sighed and rolled her eyes. "See you around, and don't forget to call every once in a while. If you don't, just remember that I KNOW where you live, so I may invite myself at any time." With that, Scarlet flashed a quick grin and followed Raider and Twitch out. Both of the 'boys' waved to her as they exited the room.

"Looks like they are going back." Hotch stated in his monotone voice. Directing his attention back to Emily he informed, "You do understand that you are NOT working for a long time, right?"

"Wha-? Come on…" Emily whined, causing everyone to let out a laugh.

"Well maybe we can work it out to where you can do paper work or something in the office." Rossi suggested, in his usual parental tone.

"Aw, geez thanks."Emily laughed and winced. She was starting to realize how much pain she was in, and that was a lot.

"Maybe we should go…" Hotch pointed out.

"He is right. Everyone shoo." Garcia began to usher everyone out of the room. Before closing the door, she looked down the hall. "Well looks like there are a few more visitors before you're done Agent Prentiss." She smiled and walked out, leaving the door agape.

Reid popped his head in, "See you later Emily. Oh and those kids are here to see you." Reid dipped his head back out and was gone.

Just as he said, Lily came charging into the room, with a very tired looking mother chasing behind her. Jo walked in more calmly; standing beside a very tall man that Emily assumed was the father.

"Oh Lily sweetheart, please be careful." The mother told Lily as she approached the wounded agent.

"Are you weally an F.B.I. Agwent?" Lily asked with wide eyes. She was carrying something in her hand, a small Tupperware container.

"Are you going to tell Agent Prentiss what you brought her sweetheart?" The father asked Lily. Lily nodded fiercely and placed the container right on the bed. The mother quickly put it on the bedside table, right in front of the teddy bear, gently.

"I bwought you swome of my bwithday cake!" Lily said proudly. She jumped on the bed and gave Emily a gargantuan hug, which took Emily by surprise. "Thwank you soooooo super duper much!" And then the little kid was like a rocket and blasted off out of the room. Emily smiled at the kid's energy. The mother bolted after her and the father looked at Jo, then nodded with a soft smile.

"I'll help your mother." He told Jo and walked out the room. Jo walked over to Emily and stood right in front of the bed.

She had tears in her eyes and looked like she was going to burst into tears. All of a sudden she wrapped her arms around Emily's neck and hugged her like she would hug a cuddly toy.

"Thank you so much. I want to be just like you. You kept every promise and… and…" Jo couldn't say anymore, finally losing control. She cried into Emily, who simply sat there and would murmur comforting words into the traumatized child's ear.

"It's okay, shh… it's all okay now." Emily heard the girl give some final sniffles and let go of the choke hold she had on Emily.

"You're my hero…" The girl that stood in front of Emily looked so different from the Jo she had met only a day or so before. She looked tired but full of determination. The kid that stood in front of her was just a little girl, who by chance, had to grow up a lot quicker than she should have. Emily smiled a real genuine smile. Looking at the little girl, she simply laughed.

_Maybe… Just maybe, all of this was worth it. This sick game is finally over and I won. I'm sure glad I decided to fight, instead of giving up. Whew… But I know that if this little girl can manage to bounce back, than I sure as hell better get my act together, because it looks like this kid is going to be watching my every move. _

Emily let out a soft chuckle at her own thoughts. Jo looked at her slightly confused and Emily just laughed a bit harder.

"Aren't you at least a little afraid of the world now?" Emily joked and at this Jo's eyes lit up.

"Nope! Because I'm going to kick bad guy butt when I'm older, and work in the F.B.I." Jo straightened up and tried to make herself look tall. Just then, they both heard Jo's father call for her to leave. As she was about to jog out the door she turned around and ran full blast back to Emily's bed. "Here." She said sheepishly and ran out of the room.

Emily looked down at the folded paper in her lap. Painfully she picked it up with her least injured arm. Looking at it she read "Thank you Agent Prentiss" on the front of the card. The handwriting was pretty good for a little kid. She flipped it open and smiled.

"What's that?" Leo asked standing in front of the bed. Emily jumped slightly, but quickly regretted the movement.

"Ow." She stated flatly. Looking back at the card she smiled again.

"How? How the hell could you deal with all of this and not be stuck in some loony bin by now?" Leo asked, totally exasperated.

"Look at this. Things like this," She showed him the card, "That is more than enough for me to stay sane and continue my job."

Leo picked up the card and looked at it. Inside he saw handwriting from a child.

"Dear Emily,

You kept all your promises. All you did was help us and never asked for anything. I promise that I will make you proud and I will help people too. When people will ask me why, I know exactly what I'll tell them. I won't lie and tell them that everything will be okay and just not do anything. I'll prove to them by doing the same thing you did, taking action. Thank you for everything!

Jo"

Leo saw a picture labeled: Emily, Me, and Lily. In the picture it showed Emily sitting beside the two girls and looked like she was comforting them. A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. He let out a light laugh.

"Are you crying?" Emily asked him sincerely.

"No, I just have something in my eye." Leo sniffled a little and turned away from her. Emily smiled at his behavior, but decided not to argue with him this time… But she sure as hell wasn't going to let him get off that easy.

"You know later, I am soooo going to tease you about this!" She jabbed at him. He turned back around and wiped away his watery eyes.

"They definitely don't have you on enough meds." And with that, their sentimental moment was successfully broken!

**The End **

* * *

**Wasn't that just dandy? Hmmm? Seriously I would like to know wat you thought about my first completed drama story... Took a lot of thinking too, so koodoes to me right?!? Hehe... Well plz review and tell me if you liked the story or not... Preferably a positive review, but contructive critism is welcome as well! Thanks so much for reading this loyal readers and I bid you a farewell!**

**-For the last time on this story**

-**Jonezie**


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